of  tl^e 

C[|nilier0itp  of  JI3ott|)  Carolina 


Collection  ot  il3ortf)  Catoliniana 
ftom  tl)e  Eiftrarj?  of 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N  C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00018469373 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped 
below  unless  recalled  sooner.    It  may  be 
renewed  only  once  and  must  be  brought  to 
the  North  Carolina  Collection  for  renewal. 


Afta=4'3eg^ 


Form  No.  A-369 


Reminiscences 


A  Sketch  and  Letters 

Descriptive  of  Life  in  Person  County 

in  Former  Days 


By  Alexander  R.  Foushee 


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^  -  ^-^  y 


^.   ^^4^,.^^ 


^^^  _2x  i-^c-^ 


.-^ 


;. 


-c-^^ 


/C        am  ,  ^-^ 


^,   ^//  .<-,  /<^ 


/ 


Reminiscences 

A  Sketch  and  Letters  Descriptive 

of  Life  in  Person  County 

in  Former  Days 


By  ALEXANDER  R.  FOUSHEE 


ROXBORO,  NORTH  CAROLINA 

1921 


1921 

THE  SEEMAN  PRINTERY 

Durham,  N.  C. 


c,3 


IDebication 

To  the  Men  and  Women  of  Person  County;  to  those  old 
friends  who  hax'e  wrought  and  toiled  and  grozvn  old  along 
with  me;  and  to  the  younger  generation,  the  sturdy  offspring 
of  old  acquaintances  of  mine,  with  the  sunlight  of  youth 
iyi  their  faces  and  the  love  of  native  soil  in  their  hearts; 
I  dedicate  zvith  affection  these  rambling  notes  of  an  old 
man's  recollections. 


AN  APOLOGY 

The  past  always  has  its  interest  whether  it  is  the  history 
of  a  nation  or  of  a  village.  The  old  inhabitant  likes  to  tell 
that  he  remembers  when  the  place  where  that  block  of  stores 
stands  was  a  cornfield,  or  the  site  of  that  factory,  a  frog 
pond;  and  the  people  laugh  and  say,  "The  old  man  is 
trotting  out  his  frog  pond  again."  But  he  will  always  have 
listeners.  A  few  years  ago  I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Roxboro 
Courier  giving  some  reminiscences  of  the  early  days  of  our 
town.  It  was  so  kindly  received  that  subsequently  I  wrote 
other  letters  until  I  had  covered  almost  the  whole  period 
of  the  town's  later  life.  I  had  no  thought  that  these  letters 
would  ever  be  published  in  book  form,  and  it  is  now  being 
done  because  of  requests  of  many  friends. 

The  letters  as  published  are  not  in  the  exact  order  in 
which  they  were  written,  as  will  appear  from  the  dates  they 
bear,  but  are  rearranged  so  as  to  follozv  more  consecutively 
the  times  they  describe,  ivhile  parts  of  some  of  them  have 
been  omitted  as  not  being  of  historical  nature. 

No  claim  is  made  that  they  have  any  great  historic  value 
except  so  far  as  a  little  account  of  the  people  and  doings 
of  a  small  community  may  be  of  worth.  I  shall  be  happy  if 
this  little  volume  proves  of  any  pleasure  and  interest  to  my 
old  friends  or  their  children. 

Alexander  Rountree  Foushee. 


AN  OCTOGENARIAN  SKETCH 

An  old  man's  memory  lingers  lovingly  in  the  past.  The 
faces  of  the  boys  and  girls  he  knew  as  child  and  youth 
smile  kindly  and  merrily  to  him  out  of  the  days  that  are 
no  more,  and  he  holds  communion  with  them  more  famil- 
iarly than  with  the  friends  of  later  years.  How  clear  and 
distinct  the  picture  comes  of  that  far  day  when  I  played  as 
a  child  on  the  clean  white  sandy  yard  of  my  father  with 
my  brothers  and  sisters.  In  all  there  were  eleven  of  us  and 
I  was  near  the  middle,  some  older,  some  younger. 

We  lived  on  a  fair-sized  plantation  of  some  450  acres, 
on  a  beautiful  ridge  in  what  is  now  Bushy  Fork  Town- 
ship of  Person  county,  North  Carolina.  There  were  some 
negro  slaves ;  but  I  remember  that  the  real  slave  there 
was  my  mother  "cumbered  about  much  serving."  She 
was  ever  busy,  so  busy  at  times  that  I  really  seem  to 
have  seen  her  little.  And  what  with  child-bearing  and 
child-rearing  and  the  multitudinous  duties  of  the  farm 
and  home  the  candle  of  her  life  early  burned  out.  I 
was  but  13  years  old  when  we  laid  her  dear  form  in 
the  grave  but  a  few  yards  from  the  house.  She  was 
Frances  Rountree,  born  and  reared  in  Little  River  Town- 
ship in  Orange  county.  Her  world  included  little  more  than 
the  neighborhood  where  she  spent  her  years  as  girl,  wife 
and  mother;  for  few  traveled  far  beyond  the  environs  of 
their  birthplace. 

I  think  with  genuine  pride  of  my  father,  Adnah  Camp- 
bell Foushee.  It  may  be  that  he  knew  and  thought  little  how 
to  approach  familiarly  to  his  children ;  we  might  possibly 
appear  to  him  as  incidents  to  the  life  he  lived ;  for  parents  of 
my  acquaintance  then  knew  nothing  of  the  modern  idea  of 
deliberate  companionship  of  parent  and  child.  Children 
were  to  be  fed,  clothed,  sent  to  school,  taught  to  work  and 
to  obey  implicitly.  Sentiment  had  little  place.  Besides,  the 
world  then  was  young — at  least  in  Bushy  Fork, — and  my 


lather's  farm  was  a  secluded  part  of  earth.  The  sounds  of 
that  big,  far  away  world  with  its  cities  and  its  crowded 
haunts  of  men  were  but  faint  echoes  there ;  the  hand  of 
governmental  authority  seldom  intruded  and  my  father 
was  in  a  small  way  a  patriarch.  To  his  own  family  he  was 
authority  and  protector;  even  the  necessities  of  life  were 
nearly  all  the  products  of  himself,  his  family  and  his  farm. 
And  like  him  were  his  neighbors.  They  lived  not  near 
enough  to  hear  each  other's  dogs  bark. 

But  though  I  never  was  close  to  my  father  as  a  child, 
I  know  now,  as  I  did  not  then,  that  he  wrought  well. 
What  he  accomplished  came  of  his  own  powers,  his  own 
character.  Religious,  though  never  a  church  member, 
he  called  his  children  about  him  Sundays,  read  the  Bible 
and  under  his  leading  all  sang  hymns,  those  hymns  that 
led  the  way  of  Puritan  Christianity  into  the  wilderness 
of  the  New  World.  He  was  honest,  pitilessly  honest  to 
all  except  to  himself ;  for  he  gave  more  than  the  measure 
pressed  down  and  running  over,  and  he  often  labored 
for  others  without  pay  because  he  would  not  ask  pay. 
Simple  in  his  life ;  modest,  almost  shunning  the  world ; 
really  affected  by  attention  of  others,  as  a  remembered 
incident  of  a  candidate  for  office  marking  him  for  atten- 
tion recalls  to  me ;  yet  stern  almost  to  harshness  in  re- 
quirements of  uprightness  in  his  children.  He  was  withal 
quite  competent  to  look  after  himself  for  by  his  own  efforts 
he  accumulated  a  good  estate,  reared  and  modestly  educated 
his  children  and  avoided  those  uncertain  ventures  that  so 
often  dragged  men  into  financial  losses.  If  in  my  early 
years  I  failed,  perhaps,  to  understand  him,  and  if  he  failed 
then  to  demonstrate  affection  to  me,  I  am  glad  that  in  his 
later  years  he  quietly  indicated  a  certain  pride  in  me,  and  I 
know  now  the  fine  qualities  of  the  silent,  yet  level-headed 
man;  for  I  believe  no  act  of  his  ever  was  unworthy  a  good 


Page  Six 


man.     He  died  in   1887.   full  of  years,   four  score  and  six, 
and  he  sleeps  beside  my  mother. 

Simple  was  the  life  into  which  I  was  first  ushered  back 
in  1839;  crude  were  the  implements  of  civilization.  Food 
and  clothing  were  the  outcome  chiefly  of  home  industry; 
life's  needs  were  few  and  easily  supplied;  field  and  forest 
about  my  home  were  ignorant  of  sound  of  the  steam  whistle ; 
the  nearest  railroad  was  many  tens  of  miles  away ;  the 
school  house  was  a  log  hut  of  one  room  and  the  Blue  Back 
Speller  was  a  high  mark  in  literature ;  the  arrival  of  a 
stranger  in  the  neighborhood  was  an  event  like  a  visitor 
from  another  world;  of  books  there  were  few,  and  indeed 
little  needed;  for  there  were  the  Bible,  Fox's  Book  of 
Martyrs;  and  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress;  while  nature 
with  her  book  of  fields,  forest  and  seasons,  her  snow  storms 
and  her  freshets  ever  called  one  to  read ;  the  teeming  world 
beyond  with  cities  and  men  was  all  but  unknown  and  the 
noises  of  the  world  of  business  and  of  politics  in  State  and 
nation  drifted  into  that  community  planted  in  the  woods 
like  spent  echoes. 

The  world  was  small,  must  be  small ;  from  the  highest 
hill  top,  one  could  see  on  a  clear  day  almost,  perhaps,  to  its 
utmost  limits  and  those  who  had  journeyed  far  away  out  of 
the  community,  going  fifty,  one  hundred  or  possibly  two 
hundred  miles  surely  must  have  gotten  nearly  to  the  bound- 
ary.   Such  were  my  childish  ideas. 

At  seven  years  I  made  my  entry  into  school,  a  little  log 
building  that  stood  over  on  the  edge  of  my  father's  farm. 
Here  were  the  neighbor  boys  and  girls,  most  of  whom  I 
knew.  Among  them  was  the  determined  little  brown-eyed 
girl  who  years  after  became  my  wife.  Her  father  owned 
the  farm  adjoining  my  father's  and  his  home  sat  upon  the 
opposite  hill  two  miles  away.  James  O.  Bradsher,  of  happy 
memory,  taught  the  school.  The  school  world  about  me  was 
strange,  and  I  eagerly  sought  knowledge  here  where  doubt- 

Page  Seven 


less  it  was  scanty  enough,  but  the  teacher  was  sincere  and 
earnest.  The  school  room  was  crowded  with  live  young 
folks  and  the  teacher's  task  was  to  keep  them  busy.  If  his 
method  of  doing  this  was  to  make  them  all  study  aloud  so 
that  the  hum  of  voices  as  from  a  bee  hive  was  heard  many 
yards  from  the  school,  this  was  because  the  teacher  was 
following  custom  as  his  guide.  Teaching  then  was  not  a 
science  nor  even  an  art.  North  Carolina  had  already  then 
an  established  public  school  system  but  no  schools  for 
teachers  had  been  conceived ;  furthermore  all  my  teachers 
were  male  and  one  would  have  been  considerd  silly  to  sug- 
gest that  the  best  teacher  of  the  child  is  a  woman.  The 
patrons  of  the  community  looked  around  for  a  youth  of 
character  who  wrote  a  good  hand  and  gave  him  the  job  of 
teaching  their  children. 

This  my  first  teacher,  James  O.  Bradsher,  was  a  fine 
type  of  young  man,  intelligent,  sympathetic  and  of  sturdy 
character.  I  held  his  friendship  through  the  years  and  as  my 
first  wife  was  his  niece  he  was  often  a  welcome  visitor  in 
my  house.  He  lived  to  a  great  age,  a  good,  gray  old  man, 
friend  and  counsellor  of  his  neighbors,  a  sweet-spirited 
Christian,  the  head  of  a  splendid  family  of  sons  and  daugh- 
ters. The  impression  he  made  upon  my  tender  years  has 
continued  through  my  whole  life.  School  sessions  were 
brief,  chiefly  in  the  season  when  there  was  no  farm  work. 
Teacher  followed  teacher  in  quick  succession. 

My  sixth  teacher  was  my  own  brother,  James.  My 
memory  loves  to  rest  upon  this  kindly  serious  forward-look- 
ing young  fellow  with  the  gleam  of  ambition  and  hope  m 
his  eyes.  To  me  he  was  like  Reuben,  with  a  sort  of  solic- 
itious  thought  of  his  young  brothers,  such  as  was  manifest 
to  Joseph  and  Benjamin,  sons  of  Israel.  With  decided 
tendencies  toward  the  student,  he  made  some  name  in  the 
neighborhood.  Later  he  attended  the  school  of  Samuel  W. 
Hughes  at  Cedar  Grove  in  Orange  county  where  he  soon 

Page  Eight 


became  assistant  teaclicr.  In  1855,  at  twenty-cic^ht  years  of 
age,  he  passed  away,  a  victim  of  typhoid  fever.  Narrow 
the  confines  of  the  world  into  which  he  was  born ;  limited 
his  opportunities ;  far  from  the  stimulating  influence  of 
cities  and  educational  centers ;  yet  it  is  easy  to  bcHeve  that 
his  sturdy  determination  and  character  would  have  broken 
the  barriers  of  an  almost  frontier  life  and  made  him  leader 
and  thinker. 

Typhoid  fever  that  carried  him  ofT  swept  through  all 
my  father's  family  and  the  same  year  took  my  brother,  Ad- 
dison and  even  the  bright  young  doctor,  Samuel  Jacobs, 
who  ministered  to  the  family  at  this  time.  It  was  no  un- 
usual thing  for  whole  families  to  be  almost  blotted  out  by 
its  blight.  Medical  science  and  the  laboratory  had  not  then 
learned  the  secret  of  the  germ;  nor  how  to  fight  and  con- 
quer typhoid.  Religion  and  the  pulpit  afforded  only  the  sad 
consolation  that  "It  Was  God's  Hand."  Many  a  young 
man  and  young  woman  of  those  early  days  who  carried  the 
possibilities  of  fine  citizenship,  whose  intellect  and  char- 
acter would  have  adorned  our  State  and  enriched  our  so- 
ciety were  lost  through  this  fell  disease. 

The  most  far-reaching  event  of  my  early  life  came  in  my 
fourteenth  year  when  at  Mr.  Green  D.  Satterfield's  request 
of  my  father  for  one  of  his  boys  to  work  in  his  store  I 
was  selected  and  was  thrust  at  this  tender  age  into  the 
midst  of  strangers  at  the  village  of  Roxboro,  which  sat 
upon  the  rugged  hills  in  the  center  of  the  county.  Here 
was  the  court  house  and  whatever  currents  of  the  outside 
world  swept  into  this  hilly,  secluded  country  eddied  in  the 
village.  It  saw  the  visiting  judge  and  lawyer  from  other 
towns ;  the  preacher  had  knowledge  of  far-ofif  places ;  trade 
and  business  brought  thither  all  the  county  to  exchange 
ideas  and  commodities;  the  slave  dealer  from  "down  south" 
stopped  over  occasionally,  and  the  stage  coach  every  other 
day  or  so  with  the  noise  of  horses'  hoofs  and  bugle  and 

Page  Nine 


shouts  of  the  driver  plunged  through  the  village  pausing 
long  enough  to  snatch  refreshing  food  and  drink  and  to 
afford  sight  of  strange  passenger  faces.  So  difTerent  it  was 
from  the  quiet  farm  in  the  forest-covered  hills  nine  miles 
away,  with  its  simple  life  and  brother  and  sister  play- 
mates ! 

My  father  brought  me  to  the  village  on  a  Sunday,  Jan- 
uary 31,  1853,  and  returned  the  same  day,  little  knowing  the 
homesick  heart  he  left  behind.  Clad  in  my  coarse  home- 
spun and  visibly  bewildered,  I  easily  became  the  victim  of 
the  thoughtless  teasing  of  the  boys  of  the  town.  When  one 
boy  older  and  larger  pushed  me  in  derision  to  the  ground 
I  unhappily  felt  that  no  one  was  more  wretched.  Soon, 
however,  came  adjustments  to  the  new  surroundings  and  kind 
hearts  arose  to  restore  the  even  balance  of  thought.  My 
mind  quickly  became  alive  to  the  sights  and  faces  of  this 
new  and,  to  me,  pulsing  world,  and  its  people  and  events 
were  indelibly  photographed  on  my  young  memory  and  I 
soon  came  to  know  nearly  all  the  people  of  the  county. 

Two  and  a  half  years  had  passed  quickly  in  the  service  of 
Mr.  Satterfield  when  I,  too,  in  the  fateful  year  of  1855,  con- 
tracted typhoid  fever  and  returned  to  my  home.  After  six 
months  of  sickness  and  recuperation  I  resumed  my  work 
of  merchant  and  clerked  for  J.  A.  Lunsford  &  Brother,  at 
High  Hill  in  Person  county,  for  about  three  years  until 
1859,  when  I  entered  school  at  Leasburg.  The  next  few 
years  carried  me  through  many  changes,  farmer  at  the 
old  home,  clerk  in  Roxboro  in  the  store  of  Hamlin  &  Hunt, 
deputy  postmaster  and,  finally,  soldier. 

The  decades  of  the  50's  following  the  Mexican  War  car- 
rying for  me  personally  so  many  changes  seems  now,  as 
I  look  back  on  it,  quiet  and  uneventful  enough  in  Person 
county.  Nationally  it  was  marked  by  great  political  discus- 
sion and  the  noise  of  those  great  constitutional  debates 
thundered  across  the  whole  country ;  but  in  our  secluded 

Page  Ten 


country  life  tlie  reapers  reaped  in  the  summer's  sun,  the  fall 
gathered  its  crops  and  the  winter  drew  the  family  circle 
about  the  log  fire ;  there  was  little  or  no  industrial  or  com- 
mercial progress,  one  felt  that  all  things  would  be  always 
the  same  and  no  one  desired  a  change.  Yet  surely  there 
was  a  deep  undercurrent  of  restlessness ;  social  and  indus- 
trial life  was  stagnating,  and  young  men  were  listening  with 
credulity  to  the  whispers  of  the  West,  the  call  of  opportunity- 
Here,  they  said,  the  land  was  worn  out ;  there  lands  were 
fertile  and  fresh  and  cheap.  Scarcely  a  week  passed  but 
word  came  that  some  one  of  our  neighbors  had  gone  to 
Texas ;  there  was  a  growing  tendency  to  leave  North  Car- 
olina for  the  big  cotton  farms  and  ranches  of  Texas  and 
the  Western  States.  This  desire  to  seek  new  opportunities 
entered  my  father's  home.  First,  my  brother  John,  in  1856, 
turned  westward  to  Texas  and  Colorado  where  he  spent  the 
rest  of  his  life  among  those  hardy  sons  of  America  who 
subdued  the  West.  Thomas,  in  1857,  went  to  a  Ten- 
nessee town,  where  a  stranger  and  without  money 
he  purchased  at  $10,000.00  a  tract  of  land  and 
sold  it  the  same  day  for  a  profit,  and  later  went  on  to 
Texas  where  he  speculated  successfully  in  seed  oats  until 
the  war  called  him  to  arms.  Next,  went  Harvey  in  1859,  to 
Texas,  where  he  was  overseer  of  a  cotton  farm  for  one 
year,  but  the  second  year  brought  him  home  again. 

Strange  are  the  mutations  of  time.  Of  those  Person 
boys  who  obeyed  the  Western  call,  many  found  the  for- 
tunes they  sought,  a  few  did  not.  It  has  been  my  lot  to 
greet  in  later  years  many  of  these  wanderers  returned, 
myself  almost  their  only  surviving  acquaintance  and  hear 
their  wondering  exclamations  at  what  marvels  of  progress 
time  has  brought  to  North  Carolina  and  to  our  county. 

The  five  years  beginning  1860  were  for  my  native  South 
a  period  of  feverish  excitement  which  penetrated  to  the  re- 
motest sections.     At  first,  by  the  fireside,  at  the  school,  at 

Page  Eleven 


church,  wherever  neighbors  met,  there  was  much  talk  of 
Constitution,  of  State's  Rights,  of  Slavery,  of  coercion 
and  of  resistance  to  the  "arrogance  of  the  North."  To 
most,  it  seemed  an  easy  task  to  meet  any  invasion  and  to 
defend  Southern  soil ;  but  for  some  few  there  were  concealed 
doubts  and  fears.  And  then  came  the  rumor  followed  by 
the  undoubted  truth  of  Fort  Sumter  taken,  Lincoln's  call 
for  troops  in  the  North  and  the  call  to  arms  in  the  South 
to  maintain  freemen's  rights ;  and  the  whole  land  was  swept 
into  red  war. 

Light-hearted  boys,  who  had  played  their  school-boy 
pranks,  pulled  the  girls'  hair  and  locked  out  the  teacher, 
now  put  on  their  accoutrements  of  war,  said  farewell  to 
heavy-hearted  mothers  and  serious  fathers,  and  went  forth 
to  battle.  My  father  and  his  neighbors  yielded  their  sons, 
and  the  farms  were  left  with  the  old  men  and  the  women  and 
the  negroes — negroes  who  were  the  innocent  cause  of  the 
deadly  strife  but  who,  to  their  everlasting  praise,  were  true 
to  their  masters  and  faithful  for  four  years  to  their  trust. 

My  brother,  Haywood,  enlisted  at  the  first  call  and  fol- 
lowed the  path  of  duty  steadfast  until,  with  his  great  leader, 
he  laid  down  his  arms  at  Appomattox  and  returned  un- 
scathed to  take  up  again  in  1865  the  noble  task  of  tilling 
the  soil.  Another  brother,  Legrande,  died  in  an  army  hos- 
pital near  Charlottesville  and  his  dust  mingles  with  the  soil 
of  Virginia.  Still  another,  Harvey,  died  of  wounds  in  an 
army  hospital  in  Wilson,  N.  C,  while  my  brother  Thomas, 
volunteering  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  in  Texas,  died 
of  fever  in  a  few  weeks ;  my  brother,  John,  joined  the 
colors  in  the  West  and  came  unhurt  through  the  fires  of 
war.  I,  too,  was  called  into  the  government  service  and 
served  in  the  conscripting  office  and  in  other  capacities 
until  near  the  war's  close  I  was  placed  in  the  line  and  sent 
with  other  troops  to  the  defense  of  Fort  Fisher.     Many 


Page  Twelve 


of  our  neiglibor  boys  fell ;  many  returned  without  leg  or 
arm  or  otherwise  maimed. 

The  relentless  hand  of  war  swept  away  one-half  of  an 
entire  generation  of  strong  men.  Inch  by  inch  a  proud 
people  were  beaten  back  to  helplessness.  The  guns  that 
stilled  the  heartbeat  of  gallant  men,  broke  the  hearts  of 
Southern  women,  widowed  them,  made  them  childless,  but 
did  not  shatter  their  unyielding  spirit.  Food  became  ex- 
hausted, linen  gave  place  to  cotton  and  cotton  turned  to 
rags,  but  their  rugged  souls  fought  on. 

At  last,  leader  and  led  laid  aside  gun  and  sword  and  again 
returned  to  civil  life,  thinking  again  to  take  up  the  broken 
thread  of  their  lives.  It  mpant  much  to  have  lived  through 
such  a  time.  No  man  or  woman  came  through  this  period  of 
struggle  and  sacrifice  and  sorrow  who  was  not  made  finer 
and  stronger.  It  was  an  education  to  the  unlearned,  a  refin- 
ing to  alloyed  souls ;  it  gave  sinews  to  flabby  spirits. 

When  the  end  came,  I  returned  to  the  old  farm  and 
planted  a  crop,  worked  and  harvested  it.  The  home  circle 
had  grown  small.  My  father  had  married  again,  my  step- 
mother bearing  the  romantic  name  of  Jane  Gray ;  my  older 
sister,  Rebecca  Jane,  had  married  Robert  Anderson,  a 
farmer  in  Orange  county  near  Cedar  Grove ;  my  brothers, 
James,  Addison,  Harvey,  Thomas  and  Legrande  had  passed 
away,  the  last  three  years  in  Confederate  service;  John  was 
in  the  Golden  West ;  I  found  only  my  sister,  Elizabeth, 
and  my  brothers,  Haywood  and  Burns,  now  at  the  old 
hearth-stone.  I  was  twenty-six,  in  splendid  health,  and 
during  that  summer  tilled  my  father's  land  and  beheld  the 
blade  grow  to  fruitage  in  the  sunny  field,  and  felt  that  peace 
had  once  more  come  to  bless  me  and  mine.  At  night,  after 
the  day's  tasks  were  done,  we  talked  of  the  struggle  now 
ended  and  of  those  who  had  made  the  supreme  gift  for  a 
cause  that  was  lost. 

My  tastes,  however,  were  not  for  Ihc  farm;  my  former 

Page  Thirteen 


experience  led  me  again  to  seek  the  life  of  tradesman  and 
merchant.  There  were  temptations  to  go  to  Winston  and 
to  Durham,  then  rapidly  growing  towns ;  but  in  the  fall  of 
1865,  I  came  back  to  Roxboro  and  sought  and  obtained  a 
partnership  with  my  former  employer,  G.  D.  Satterfield. 
He  reposed  in  me  his  implicit  trust  which,  I  believe  I  can 
say,  I  never  failed. 

I  desire  here  to  pay  a  tribute  to  this  old  man,  also  a 
native  of  the  county.  He  was  a  strong  man  both  in  mind 
and  character  that  manifested  itself  in  a  strong  and  rugged 
countenance.  By  force  and  energy  he  had  builded  well,  and 
wielded  a  large  influence  in  the  alTairs  of  his  fellows 
throughout  his  life.  He  accumulated  a  good  estate  and  was 
a  man  of  vision,  which  in  a  large  field  would  have  made 
him  a  man  of  note.  His  wife,  too,  was  a  strong,  well-bal- 
anced woman  of  kind  heart  and  unflinching  character.  They 
reared  a  large  family  whom  they  educated  as  well  as  the 
schools  of  the  day  permitted.  One  of  them,  Fletcher, 
fell  at  the  very  front  of  Pickett's  famous  charge  at  Gettys- 
burg. Another,  Clement,  was  a  young  man  of  bright  intellect, 
charming  manners,  and  one  of  my  truest  friends.  Another, 
Mrs.  Ida  Winstead,  lives  today  to  grace  the  life  and  society 
of  our  town. 

The  village  in  1865  was  little  changed  from  the  days 
when  I  first  knew  it,  except  that  many  of  the  familiar  faces 
were  gone ;  many  of  the  young  boys  and  girls  were  now 
the  heads  of  families  and  there  were  new  faces  of  children. 
I  worked  hard  to  please  my  kindly  old  partner  and  to  gain 
a  place  in  business.  The  customers  were  mainly  farmers 
from  the  county,  and  it  was  my  desire  by  industry  and  fair 
dealing  to  secure  their  confidence  and  I  know  that  I  gained 
and  held  their  friendship  through  all  the  years.  This  is  a 
great  solace  to  me  in  my  old  age.  They  were  good  men, 
too,  and  I  held  for  them  great  respect  and  affection. 

Many  of  the  people  who  had  grown  to  maturity  in  the 

Page  Fourteen 


old  days,  thought,  tlic  war  over,  things  would  settle  back 
to  the  old  ways.  The  slaves  were  free,  it  was  true,  but 
surely  there  would  be  the  leisure  class  supported  by  large 
acres  who  would  rule  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  life  while 
others  would  toil  and  labor  as  before.  They  were  quickly 
undeceived.  The  end  of  the  war  seemed  to  have  brought 
new  ideas ;  the  individual  demanded  a  place  and  a  reward 
no  matter  what  was  his  family  backing.  Business  of  various 
kinds  sprang  up  and  the  new  men  showed  scant  respect 
for  social  and  business  ideas  that  once  prevailed.  New 
men  from  families  formerly  of  little  note  in  the  community 
came  into  power  and  influence  and  jostled  the  old  in  the 
way.  Energy,  business  ability  and  general  efficiency  were 
the  watchwords  that  opened  the  door  of  success  now.  We 
were  living  in  a  new  world. 

Perhaps  our  county  was  slower  than  other  communities 
to  get  into  the  swing  of  the  new  tide  of  events;  for  we 
were  almost  a  frontier.  High  hills  east  and  south  and  hills 
and  sullen  streams  north  and  west  had  always  shut  our 
people  in  and  discouraged  intercourse  with  other  communi- 
ties. Such  streams  as  Hyco,  Mayo,  Country  Line  and  Flat 
River  were  frequently  flooded  and  impassable.  The  few 
bridges  were  often  washed  away.  The  roads  were  bad  and 
getting  worse,  for  adequate  systems  of  working  them  had 
not  been  devised.  No  railroads  touched  our  soil  and 
more  than  two  decades  passed  before  the  leaven  worked 
results  here  and  before  the  locomotive  and  the  new  con- 
trivances of  modern  life  came  to  sweep  us  into  touch  with 
the  great  busy  life  of  the  wide  world. 

The  days  of  reconstruction  did  not  ravage  our  county 
nor  distress  our  people  as  it  did  other  parts  of  the  land. 
We  were  a  remote  community ;  but  we  heard  the  stories  of 
its  baleful  progress  and  talked  much  about  its  events :  the 
Ku  Klux  Klan;  the  killing  of  Stevens  at  Yanceyville;  the 
struggles  of  Albion  W.  Tourgee,  the  "carpet-bag"  judge, 

Page  Fifteen 


who  rode  the  district;  the  fanatics  in  Congress  wishing  to 
humiHate  the  South;  the  false  ideas  taught  the  negroes — 
the  tragedy  of  it  all !  And  there  was  comedy  too ;  for  did 
not  the  negroes'  eyes  roll  white  as  they  beheld  horsemen 
in  white  drink  gallons  of  water  without  stopping?  Many 
wild  stories  were  told  and  many  false  alarms  were  sounded. 

About  this  time  another  change  took  place  at  the  old  home 
in  the  hills.  My  stepmother,  Jane  Gray,  having  died,  my 
father,  in  1869,  married,  a  third  time,  Jacobina  Milner,  a 
good  woman,  who  survived  him  many  years. 

I  had  long  since  become  convinced  that  life  would  be 
incomplete  without  a  wife,  a  helpmeet,  and  in  1869  I  mar- 
ried Bettie  Wilkerson.  I  smile  now  as  I  recall  the  joy  that 
came  to  me  when  I  received,  in  the  midst  of  a  busy  day 
at  the  store,  with  customers  thronging  in,  the  letter  that 
told  me  I  was  accepted  by  her.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
my  father's  near  neighbor,  Stephen  Wilkerson,  likewise  the 
owner  of  a  large  farm,  an  excellent  and  successful  citizen. 
His  wife  was  Mary  O'Neal  Bradsher  and  they  reared  a 
large  and  strong  family  of  sons  and  daughters. 

The  choice  of  the  wife  of  a  man's  youth  determines  in 
no  small  degree  a  man's  career;  her  character  and  her 
capacity  and  her  sympathy  may  make  him  stronger  and 
better  than  he  really  is.  Truly,  Bettie  Wilkerson  was  more 
than  wife  and  the  mother  of  my  children;  she  was  for 
thirty-five  years  during  the  period  of  my  middle  life,  friend, 
counsellor,  guide,  and  inspiration.  Her  sympathy  never 
failed ;  her  help  never  faltered ;  her  counsel  was  always  wise 
and  I  pause  to  pay  my  tribute  of  praise  to  her  devotion  to 
her  home,  her  children,  her  church,  her  community ;  and 
whatever  I  was  of  worth  through  those  years,  I  may  say 
with  truth,  has  to  be  attributed  in  great  part  to  the  young 
woman  of  my  county  who  took  her  place  by  my  side. 

We  were  married  on  January  5,  1869,  by  the  venerable 
preacher,  John  E.  Montague,  in  her  father's  home  amid  the 

Page  Sixteen 


hills  where  I  had  roamed  as  a  boy.  We  set  up  housekeeping 
in  Roxboro.  Our  children  were  three,  Howard  Alexander, 
William  Linwood  and  James  Louis.  Those  were  happy  days 
as  we  toiled  together  and  watched  the  children  one  by  one 
grow  and  develop  into  youths.  Upon  them  we  centered  our 
hopes,  our  fortunes,  and  our  toil.  For  what  is  the  end  of 
man's  life  but  to  project  it  onward  into  the  future  through 
the  lives  and  well  being  of  children  and  grandchildren? 

With  the  growth  of  my  eldest  son,  I  began  to  feel  a  deep 
personal  interest  in  securing  good  schools  in  Roxboro ;  for 
I  desired  my  children  to  be  educated — a  feeling  that  was 
likewise  shared  by  my  wife  with  even  deeper  conviction. 
I  had  had  small  opportunity  of  education  and  I  wished  my 
sons  to  have  every  advantage  education  might  give.  I  joined 
with  my  neighbors,  particularly  my  friend  and  closest 
neighbor,  J.  A.  Long,  who  believed  the  same  way,  and 
gradually  under  our  influence,  our  town  became  blessed  with 
good  schools.  I  desire  here  to  make  special  mention  of  one 
of  the  teachers,  Miss  Lucy  Stanfield,  (Mrs.  George  Lans- 
dell),  who  was  an  excellent  teacher  and  deeply  impressed 
my  own  children  in  their  tender  years.  She  lived  in  my 
home  many  of  the  months  of  her  work  in  Roxboro,  for 
in  those  days  the  teachers  were  boarded  by  turn  in  different 
homes  as  part  of  their  compensation.  It  was  a  time  of 
great  joy,  both  to  parents  and  the  boys,  when  she  stayed  with 
us.  Other  teachers  were  scholarly  and  patient  and  competent, 
but  her  name  has  ever  been  a  household  word  of  respect  and 
affection. 

There  had  not  been  a  public  free  school  in  our  village. 
From  the  late  60's  until  very  recent  years,  the  village  chil- 
dren were  taught  in  private  schools  altogether,  and  thus  it 
fell  to  a  few  of  us  to  keep  our  schools  going.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  not  until  after  the  war  did  the  woman 
school  teacher  begin  her  real  work,  since  schools  for  boys  had 
been  uniformly  taught  by  men.     Women  are  doubtless  the 

Page  Seventeen 


best,  the  most  sympathetic  teachers  because  they  understand 
children  best,  so  I  am  inclined  to  think  this  is  one  of  the  good 
things  the  new  day  we  live  in  has  brought. 

The  two  or  three  decades  following  the  war  saw  many 
other  changes  and  movements.  Most  interesting  was  the 
breaking  up  of  the  large  landed  estates  that  existed  in  the 
first  half  century  of  our  State's  history,  the  coming  of 
small  farms  into  the  possession  of  the  former  renters  and 
overseers,  and  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  industrious 
negroes ;  the  rise  of  industrialism  in  towns  and  crossroads, 
and  particularly  the  realization  of  the  dignity  of  labor.  It 
has  taken  a  long  time  for  men  and  women  to  learn  that 
it  is  not  degrading  to  labor  with  one's  own  hands. 

During  those  years,  there  was  also  a  great  growth  in 
the  demand  for  more  education  and  better  schools.  Temper- 
ance was  a  subject  much  discussed ;  societies  for  promoting 
it  were  organized  over  the  county.  Judge  Edwin  G.  Reade, 
distinguished  lawyer  of  the  county,  Congressman  and  later 
State  Supreme  Court  Judge,  was  a  prominent  advocate  of 
temperance  and  wrote  pamphlets  on  the  subject  in  the  name 
of  "Picklerod."  In  addition  to  this  a  great  wave  of  religious 
fervor  swept  over  our  county.  This  was  manifested  particu- 
larly in  protracted  meetings,  which  were  held  for  many  days 
in  succession,  attended  by  great  crowds  of  people.  The 
speakers  were  often  eloquent  and  powerful  and  large  num- 
bers were  added  to  the  churches,  particularly  the  Method- 
ist and  the  Baptist,  whfch  grew  in  membership  and  influence 
during  this  period. 

An  evangelist  of  singular  power  who  came  to  Roxboro 
in  1879  was  Mrs.  Mary  Moon,  a  Quakeress.  It  was 
during  her  preaching  that  I  decided  to  join  a  church.  My 
wife  was  a  Baptist  and  since  my  own  belief  was  the  same,  I 
joined  that  church.  There  were  but  few  Baptists  in  the 
village  and  we  built  a  small  church  on  Main  Street  on  the 
site  where  now  is  the  Crowell  garage.     Religion  must  ex- 

Pagc  Eighteen 


press  itself  through  a  denomination  so  I  took  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  little  church.  Generous  was  the  reception 
given  it  by  the  Methodists  of  the  town,  who  formed  the 
majority  of  the  inhabitants.  The  little  group  grew  until 
the  church  is  today  a  strong  organization  with  a  splendid 
membership.  I  want  to  say  that  our  community  has  never 
been  cursed  by  those  unhappy  and  often  bitter  denomina- 
tional antagonisms  that  so  often  have  marred  the  life  of 
small  towns,  but  the  people  have  maintained,  except  in  rare 
instances,  that  spirit  of  Christian  brotherliness  which  has 
made  relisfious  life  in  Roxboro  wholesome. 

I  cannot  refrain  here  from  paying  a  passing  tribute  to 
an  early  pastor  of  our  church,  Joseph  H.  Lamberth.  His 
pastorate,  beginning  in  1885,  continued  for  many  years, 
and  he  lived  many  of  those  years  in  my  home.  With  modest 
attainments  as  a  scholar  he  was  yet  a  tremendous  force. 
His  sympathies  were  universal  and  his  knowledge  of 
human  nature  was  great.  His  generous  nature,  his  kind- 
ness, his  ready  self-sacrifice,  his  fervor,  his  sense  of  humor 
gave  him  great  popularity,  while  his  courage  and  daring 
gave  him  influence.  At  one  time,  I  doubt  not  he  commanded 
as  wide  an  influence  in  the  county  as  any  other  man  and, 
though  he  was  intensely  human,  his  influence  was  always 
for  hi"her  things.  He  v/as  my  beloved  friend  as  well  as  my 
pastor.  He  influenced  my  life  deeply,  and  laid  his  impress 
upon  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  youths  of  our  county. 

Fortune  was  kind  to  mc  and  it  was  a  great  joy  to  me 
that  I  was  able  to  put  my  sons  in  college.  In  1885  my 
oldest  son,  Howard,  entered  Wake  Forest  College.  I  re- 
call that  at  that  time  no  other  Person  County  boy  was  at- 
tending college.  He  was  very  young,  and  for  me,  like  other 
men  who  never  were  privileged  to  have  a  college  education, 
it  carried  a  sort  of  mystery  with  it.  The  college  man  seemed 
like  one  set  apart.  That  my  son  had  that  chance  caused 
me  ereat  satisfaction  and  I  watched  his  course  with  deepest 

Page  Nineteen 


interest.  I  felt  repaid,  for  he  studied,  was  respected  by 
his  teachers  and  gathered  many  honors  from  fellow  stu- 
dents. My  other  sons  also  attended  college  but  the  first  joy 
came  in  him  and  his  success  naturally  affected  me  more 
keenly. 

In  a  life  as  long  as  mine  there  will  be  broken  ties.  In 
October,  1904,  my  wife,  the  companion  of  early  years  died ; 
in  January,  1906,  my  youngest  son,  James,  followed  her.  He 
was  a  bright  and  charming  young  fellow,  jovial,  generous 
and  possessed  of  a  humor  that  met  and  enveloped  every  cir- 
cumstance of  life.  He  was  a  student  of  medicine  and  I 
believe  destined  for  a  useful  life.  In  1916  my  oldest  son, 
Howard,  who  had  been  such  a  pride  to  me,  my  first  born, 
who  had  laid  deep  hold  upon  my  heart,  and  whose  career  as 
lawyer  and  later  as  Superior  Court  Judge,  had  poured  honor 
upon  my  white  hair,  passed  to  the  grave. 

In  1906  I  married  Miss  Alice  Tucker,  daughter  of  Cap- 
tain J.  A.  Tucker,  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  who  with  his 
family  had  come  many  years  before  from  Charlotte  county 
in  Virginia  to  North  Carolina.  The  "Old  Dominion,"  with 
its  many  good  gifts  to  the  political  and  social  life  of  our 
country,  has  given  none  more  splendid  than  her  women, 
loyal  to  the  traditions  of  Southland  and  family  and  devoted 
to  all  those  traits  of  gentleness  and  of  spirit  that  make  up 
the  charm  of  the  Southern  woman.  If  I  may  be  permitted 
to  say  it,  she  who  has  been  my  companion  and  helpmeet 
these  twelve  years,  and  goes  so  softly  and  so  loyally  by  my 
side  in  the  evening  days  of  my  life,  is  typical  of  all  that  is 
best  in  Southern  womanhood. 

My  efforts  have  been  almost  entirely  concerned  with  the 
pursuit  of  private  business,  but  in  my  time  I  served  in 
some  public  and  semi-public  relations.  I  have  been  treasurer 
and  at  another  time  a  Commissioner  of  my  County  and  again 
a  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  Trustee  of  the  town  School.  In 
business  I  have  been  President  and  am  now  Vice-President 

Page  Twenty 


of  the  Roxboro  Cotton  Mills,  also  vice-president  of  the 
Peoples  Bank  of  which  1  am  now  President.  For  many 
years  I  had  the  honor  to  be  trustee  of  Wake  Forest  College. 
A  backward  look  upon  my  life  tells  me  that  God  has 
blessed  me,  blessed  me  in  the  county  of  my  birth,  in  the 
friends  that  I  have  had  and  the  loved  ones  who  have  at 
all  times  of  my  life  been  gathered  about  my  fireside.  I 
have  played  my  part,  small  part  though  it  has  been,  upon 
the  stage  of  life ;  I  have  had  joy,  also  sorrow ;  and  I  can 
say  with  the  mariner  of  old  time 

"All  times  I  have  enjoyed  greatly,  have  suffered  greatly 
Both  with  those  that  loved  me,  and  alone." 

But  I  can  also  say 

"I  have  lived,  seen  God's  Hand  through  a  life  time  and 
All  was  for  the  best." 

I  have  seen  great  changes  and  they  seem  to  me  to  have 
tended  to  making  the  world  a  better  dwelling  place  for 
mankind.  I  rejoice  that  each  change  has  possessed  for  me 
an  absorbing  interest,  and  years  have  not  blunted  my  vis- 
ion of  events  of  this  wonderful  era.  I  have  been  happy  in 
the  success  of  my  neighbors,  in  the  development  of  the 
young  men  and  women  about  me  whose  strength  and  wisdom 
are  to  bear  the  burdens  of  today  and  tomorrow. 

It  may  not  be  improper  for  me,  an  old  man,  to  say  that 
I  have  always  exerted  my  effort  to  help  the  advance  of 
things  that  were  true,  honest,  just  and  of  good  report ;  that 
made  for  the  uplift  of  my  time,  as  I  have  seen  it;  that  I 
have  desired  the  progress  of  education,  morality  and  re- 
ligion and  for  myself  have  set  the  high  standard,  though 
doubtless  I  have  so  often  fallen  short,  so  short,  of  reaching 
it,  the  high  standard  of  the  Good  Book : 

"To  do  justly,  to  love  mercy  and  walk  humbly  before  my  God." 

Page  Twenty-one 


My  years  are  four  score  and  one,  the  long  day  wanes,  but 

"Old  age  hath  yet  his  honor  and  his  toil ;" 
and  I  shall  hope  to  find  that 

"The  best  is  yet  to  be 
The  last  of  life,  for  which  the  first  was  made: 

Our  times  are  in  His  hand 

Who  said  'A  whole  I  planned. 
Youth  shows  but  half;  trust  God;  see  all  nor  be  afraid.'" 

A.  R.  F. 

RoxBORO,  N.  C.   July,  1920. 


Page  Twenty-two 


LETTERS  IN  THE  COURIER 

CUSTOMS,  PEOPLE  AND  CONDITIONS,  1853-1860 

Mr.  Editor  : 

As  I  am  one  of  the  older  citizens  of  Roxboro  I  have 
consented  at  the  request  of  friends  to  write  some  remi- 
niscences of  "Ye  old  time  Roxboro  and  Person  county  for 
the  Courier.  I  hope  my  readers  will  excuse  all  personal 
references,  for  I  was  a  part  of  much  that  I  shall  write,  and 
my  story  will  necessarily  revolve  about  my  own  life  to  a 
great  extent.  1  first  came  to  Roxboro  to  live  in  January, 
1853,  then  a  youth  of  less  than  fourteen  years  and  was 
employed  as  a  general  clerk  in  the  store  of  G.  D.  Satter- 
field  and  J.  A.  Lunsford  and  remained  in  their  employ 
about  two  and  a  half  years,  but  later  went  back  to  my 
father's  farm,  and  to  school  at  the  Academy  at  Leasburg  in 
Caswell  county  for  ten  months  in  1859.  This  school  was 
taught  by  Henry  A.  Rogers,  an  excellent  young  man,  a 
native  of  Person  county  and  afterwards  a  Lieutenant  Col- 
onel in  the  Confederate  Army.  After  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War  in  the  fall  of  1865  I  came  back  to  Roxboro  to 
live  and  have  made  it  my  home  ever  since.  The  firm  of 
Satterfield  &  Lunsford,  later  Satterfield  &  (Haywood)  Wil- 
liams, did  the  largest  mercantile  business  in  the  village  and 
county  and  indeed  a  large  trade  for  that  day.  There  were 
only  three  other  general  stores  in  the  town,  conducted  by 
Dickens  and  Wright,  Reade  and  Hamlet,  and  Barnett  and 
Thaxton.  There  were  two  or  three  bar-rooms  and  one 
hotel,  the  latter  being  run  by  Colonel  William  R.  Reade,  who 
was  also  postmaster,  and  later  mayor  of  the  town. 

We  had  no  bank,  the  nearest  one  being  in  Milton,  twenty 
miles  away,  where  our  people  did  their  banking;  the  near- 
est drug  store  was  also  in  Milton.     We  had  no  hardware 

Page  Twenty-three 


store,  no  furniture  store,  no  barber  shop.  The  boys  had  to 
shave  themselves  or  go  elsewhere  to  have  their  tonsorial 
work  done. 

There  was  one  tailor  shop,  conducted  by  Wiles  and 
Denny.  Occasionally  a  "journey  man"  or  tramp  tailor 
would  come  by  and  put  in  at  the  local  tailor  shop  and  get 
a  "seat  of  work,"  as  it  was  called.  The  usual  happening 
was  that  he  would  work  a  few  weeks,  make  considerable 
money,  get  on  a  spree,  rid  himself  of  his  cash  and  strike 
out  for  the  next  town  for  another  job  These  men  were  of 
a  roving  disposition.  We  also  had  two  or  three  wagon  and 
buggy  repair  shops,  two  or  three  blacksmith  shops  and  a 
brick  yard. 

This  list  includes  about  all  the  business  of  the  town. 
The  day  of  ready-made  clothing  had  hardly  come  and  very 
little  of  it  was  kept  in  the  stores.  The  sewing  machine  had 
not  come  into  use.  I  heard  Mr.  W.  T.  Noell,  of  Mt.  Tirzah, 
in  this  county,  say  that  he  brought  the  first  sewing  machine 
into  this  section  and,  in  fact,  the  first  one  to  North  Caro- 
llina.  This,  I  think,  was  about  1854.  He  said  people  came 
from  ten  to  twenty  miles  to  see  the  "show." 

There  was  no  cofifin  shop ;  wagon  shops  and  carpenters 
over  the  county  made  common  cofifins  to  order.  When  a 
fine  cofifin  was  wanted  one  went  to  Tom  Day's  shop  in 
Milton,  waited  to  have  it  made  to  order,  and  brought  it  home 
on  a  wagon.  No  hearses  were  known  in  this  section, 
nor  had  cases  for  coffins  been  introduced ;  simply  a  vault 
was  cut  into  the  clay  to  fit  the  coffin.  Tom  Day  was  a  high 
type  of  the  "old  issue"  free  negro. 

He  accumulated  a  good  estate  by  industry  and  fair  deal- 
ing and  stood  well  with  the  white  people.  He  educated  his 
children  up  North,  as  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  find 
schools  for  them  in  the  South.  He  had  a  large  furniture  fac- 
tory and  made  fine  articles  which  found  ready  sale  at  good 

Page  Twenty-four 


prices.  His  furniture  can  be  found  today  in  many  homes  in 
Caswell  and  Person  counties. 

We  had  a  flourishing  Masonic  Lodge  in  Roxboro,  with 
Hon.  E.  G.  Reade  or  Col.  C.  S.  Winstead,  Master,  and  S. 
L.  Wiles,  Tiler ;  but  there  was  no  church  building  of  any 
kind  in  town.  The  old  Cool-Spring  Methodist  church,  a 
mile  north  of  town,  had  become  so  dilapidated  that  in  time 
it  was  abandoned  and  the  congregation  moved  to  town  and 
worshipped  either  in  the  Male  Academy,  or  in  the  old  court 
house.  This  continued  for  four  or  five  years  until  a  church 
house  was  built  on  the  spot  where  the  new  brick  Methodist 
church  is  now  located.  The  Academy  was  afterwards 
changed  to  a  residence  and  used  by  Rev.  W.  R.  Webb  until 
his  death. 

At  the  time  the  writer  came  to  town  to  live,  the  popula- 
tion of  the  town  was  225  or  250,  but  only  two  people  are 
here  now  that  I  remember  being  here  then,  these  are  W.  E. 
Webb,  our  present  Register  of  Deeds,  and  Mrs.  S.  B.  Win- 
stead  (nee  Ida  Satterfield),  both  then  small  children.  The 
heads  of  families  were  as  follows :  G.  D.  Satterfield,  mer- 
chant, farmer  and  tobacco  manufacturer;  Stephens  M. 
Dickens,  merchant  and  farmer;  E.  G.  Reade,  merchant, 
lawyer  and  farmer ;  Col.  William  R.  Reade,  hotel  proprietor 
and  postmaster ;  John  M.  Winstead,  sheriff ;  William  O. 
Bowler,  harness  and  saddle  maker ;  John  H.  Jones,  farm- 
er; Thomas  Sizemore,  blackmith ;  James  M.  Barnett,  mer- 
chant and  farmer ;  B.  A.  Thaxton,  merchant ;  James  Whitt, 
shoemaker ;  Richard  Springfield,  shoemaker ;  C.  H.  Brad- 
sher,  physician ;  W.  R.  Webb,  local  preacher  and  clerk  of 
Superior  Court;  Ira  T.  Wyche,  circuit  rider  of  the  Meth- 
odist church;  S.  L.  Wiles,  tailor;  Nat  H.  Baird,  farmer; 
Charles  Mason,  clerk  of  County  Court ;  George  B.  Cham- 
bers, jailor;  John  C.  Wiley,  stage  driver;  Alexander  Hop- 
kins, trader;  Joseph  W.  Nance,  tobacco  manufacturer; 
Kemp   Sanders,   wood   workman ;   Horace   Mason,   Alonzc 

Page  Twenty-five 


Bowler,  Cad  Hopkins,  Iverson  Cothran  and  perhaps  there 
were  a  few  others.  All  of  them  have  passed  away  and  live 
in  the  memory  of  few. 

The  old  bachelors  and  young  men  whom  I  recall  were : 
Thom.as  T.  Satterfield,  teacher;  C.  S.  Winstead,  lawyer; 
E.  C.  Jordan,  lawyer ;  James  Wright,  merchant ;  Chesley 
Hamlen,  merchant;  Alex  O'Briant,  clerk;  Henry  Satter- 
field, deputy  sheriff ;  H.  S.  Thaxton,  clerk ;  James  H. 
Woody,  teacher;  John  G.  Dillehay,  tobacco  manufacturer; 
W.  M.  Denny,  tailor ;  Kemp  Sanders,  wheelwright ;  W.  B. 
Austin,  shoemaker;  Cad  Hopkins,  Thomas  A.  Wiles,  Louis 
Hopkins,  John  A.  Baird,  Alonzo  Bowler,  Horace  Mason, 
Tip  Hopkins,  E.  F.  Satterfield,  John  G.  Dickens  and  Henry 
T.  Jordan. 

Of  young  ladies  there  were:  Misses  Sue  and  Jennie 
Satterfield,  Lou  Dickens,  Sallie  Mason,  Cerilda  Bowler, 
Emily  Chambers,  Sallie  Gallagher,  Jennie  and  Mag  Palmer 
and  Emma  Reade.  Miss  Mag  Palmer  alone  survives;  she 
lives  in  Durham  and  still  maintains  the  charm  and  grace 
of  '53. 

This  was  the  era  of  light-wood  knots  and  tallow  dip 
candles  for  light,  of  cotton  cards,  flax  and  cotton  spinning 
wheels,  hand  looms,  clock  reels,  home-spun,  hand-made 
clothes.  The  sewing  machine  and  cook  stove  had  not  been 
introduced.  Cooking  was  done  in  ovens,  skillets,  frying 
pans  and  pots,  over  the  fireplace,  as  in  Colonial  days.  This 
was  also  the  day  of  the  old  stage  coach  for  the  public 
conveyance  of  passengers  and  Uncle  Sam's  mail.  A  stage 
line  then  ran  from  Danville,  Virginia,  via  Yanceyville, 
Milton,  Leasburg,  Roxboro,  Oxford,  to  Henderson  on 
the  old  Raleigh  and  Gaston  railroad,  now  the  Seaboard 
Air  Line.  I  think  the  stage  line  was  continued  west 
from  Danville  to  the  B.  &  O.  Railroad  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, the  nearest  railroad  west  of  us.  Danville  then 
had   no   railroad   as  the   Richmond  and   Danville   and   the 

Page  Twenty-six 


old  North  Carolina  railroad  had  not  been  built.  Hen- 
derson was  our  shipping  point.  Freighting  was  done 
largely  by  wagons  from  Petersburg,  Richmond  and  Lynch- 
burg, in  Virginia.  Tobacco  was  hauled  in  hogsheads  to 
these  markets  and  the  wagons  brought  back  loads  of  mer- 
chandise for  the  merchants.  It  required  quite  a  time  to 
make  the  round  trip.  I  remember  being  told  that  wagons 
had  been  run  from  here  even  to  Baltimore  to  haul  goods. 

The  arrival  of  the  stage  coach  in  town  was  quite  an 
event.  People  flocked  to  the  hotel  and  postoffice  to  see  the 
passengers,  to  get  their  mail  and  to  hear  the  news.  When  the 
stage  got  in  hearing  of  town,  the  driver  would  blow  his  bugle 
to  announce  its  coming;  he  would  then  blow  again  giving 
the  signal  as  to  how  many  passengers  on  board  wanted  a 
meal  at  the  hotel,  so  the  hotel  man  could  set  about  pre- 
paring it.  The  driver  would  change  horses  on  arrival  here 
and,  after  giving  the  passengers  just  time  for  eating,  start 
right  out  for  the  next  town. 

As  I  now  remember,  the  stage  passed  through  town 
only  about  four  or  five  times  a  week.  They  usually  drove 
two  or  four  horses,  perhaps  sometimes  six,  and  carried  from 
two  to  eight  passengers  and  their  baggage.  No  Saratoga 
trunks  were  allowed,  only  light  weight  baggage.  It  was 
very  expensive  traveling,  costing  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
cents  per  mile.  We  had  no  kerosene  oil,  electric  lights  or 
telephones.  Flint  and  steel  guns  were  used  mostly,  but 
gun  caps  were  coming  into  use.  Schools  were  not  neglected, 
as  there  were  two  flourishing  schools  here;  one  for  boys, 
conducted  by  James  H.  Woody,  and  one  for  girls  and  young 
ladies,  conducted  by  Mrs.  William  O.  Bowler.  Both  were 
well  patronized  by  the  town  and  country  people  and  from 
a  distance.    Good  schools  were  kept  up  until  the  Civil  War. 

People  in  those  days  produced  their  supplies  at  home, 
lived  at  home  and  "boarded  at  the  same  place."  Nearly 
everybody  raised  a  flock  of  sheep.    The  wives  and  daughters 

Page  Twenty-seven 


spun  and  wove  the  wool  into  jeans  for  men  and  boys,  also 
flannels,  blankets,  stockings  and  socks.  In  fact,  almost 
every  thing  worn  and  used  was  raised  and  made  on  the 
farm.  Even  cotton  and  linen  goods  were  produced  at 
home  and  materials  also  for  dyeing  the  goods  were  found 
on  the  farm  except  a  few  cents  worth  of  copperas  to  "set 
the  colors."  Then  nearly  every  man  who  claimed  to  be  a 
farmer  had  meat,  wheat,  corn  and  other  products  for  sale. 

At  that  time  we  had  only  two  Superior  Courts  and  four 
County  Courts  a  year,  the  latter  called  Courts  of  Pleas  and 
Quarter  sessions.  These  County  Courts  were  presided  over 
by  three  justices  of  the  peace,  one  of  which  was  chairman. 
Charles  Mason  was  the  Court  clerk,  an  office  which  he 
served  for  about  thirty  years,  and  C.  S.  Winstead  was 
County  Attorney.  Ordinary  cases  were  tried  in  this  court, 
but  capital  cases  and  all  cases  of  much  importance  were 
carried  to  the  Superior  Court.  The  county  court  clerk  is- 
sued marriage  licenses  as  a  part  of  his  duties,  but  kept  no 
record  of  them  as  now.  This  court  transacted  much  of  the 
business  now  done  by  the  County  Commissioners.  G.  D. 
Satterfield  was  Register  of  Deeds.  The  Superior  Court 
attracted  large  crowds ;  it  seemed  as  if  everybody  tried  to 
come  on  Tuesday  of  November  Court  which  was  the  biggest 
day  of  the  year.  It  was  also  market  day  for  home-made 
chairs,  flax  and  spinning  wheels,  slays  for  the  loom,  clock 
reels,  wool  hats,  shoes,  leather,  all  home  production.  It 
was  also  a  great  time  for  the  sale  of  ginger  cakes  and  locust 
and  persimmon  cider. 

These  last  articles,  cakes  and  cider,  were  made  and  sold 
chiefly  by  the  old  free  colored  people.  Old  man  Jordan 
Martin  and  Nelson  Cousins,  whom  many  of  our  older  peo- 
ple remember,  were  prominent  in  this  line  of  trade.  On 
one  occasion  during  Court  week,  a  tramp  struck  the  town 
for  the  first  time  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  during 
court  hours,  and  saw  a  chance  to  steal  a  little  bag  of  money 

Page  Twenty-eight 


from  old  man  Cousins'  cake  stand  while  he  was  making 
change  for  a  customer.  Some  one  nearby  seeing  it,  called 
the  old  man's  attention  to  it.  Whereupon  the  fellow  was 
arrested,  tried,  convicted  and  whipped  at  the  whipping  post 
all  in  a  few  hours.  When  he  was  discharged  and  was  de- 
parting in  a  hurry,  he  remarked  that  Roxboro  was  the  most 
business-like  town  he  had  found  in  all  his  travels. 

In  those  days  if  a  man  was  convicted  of  murder  he  had 
to  "pull  hemp."  It  was  very  difficult  to  dodge  the  gallows, 
as  we  then  had  no  penitentiary  in  the  State — had  to  hang 
him  to  solve  the  problem  of  what  to  do  with  him.  For 
manslaughter  one  cheek  was  branded  with  the  letter  M  with 
a  hot  iron ;  for  bigamy  the  letter  B  was  used.  These  letters 
could  not  be  eflfaced  and  the  culprit  had  to  wear  the  evi- 
dence of  his  disgrace  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

Among  visiting  tradesmen  at  our  Courts  I  remember 
that  Gunn  and  Bo  we,  of  Yancey  ville,  who  had  a  large  tan 
yard  and  shoe  shop,  attended  our  Courts  and  sold  their  make 
of  shoes  in  large  quantities.  They  were  known  to  make  and 
sell  honest  goods.  When  a  boy,  I  remember  my  father  bought 
a  pair  from  them  on  the  Court  House  ground  for  me. 

Among  the  visiting  lawyers  at  our  Courts  were  Gov.  W. 
A.  Graham,  of  Hillsboro,  Col.  L.  E.  Edwards,  of  Oxford, 
Hon.  John  Kerr  and  Samuel  P.  Hill,  of  Yanceyville.  On 
one  occasion,  I  remember  seeing  the  future  General  M. 
W.  Ransom  at  Court  here  to  defend  one  Joseph  P. 
Williams — a  case  moved  here  from  Caswell  county — 
charged  with  the  murder  of  his  father.  General  Ransom 
lost  his  case  and  Williams  was  hanged.  This  was  in  1855 
or  '56.  Ransom  was  then  a  young  attorney,  very  handsome 
and  straight  as  an  arrow,  a  fine  specmien  of  young  man- 
hood. 

In  speaking  of  our  courts,  I  recall  hearing  of  a  suit 
tried  here  between  old  General  Chambers,  a  prominent  cit- 
izen of  the  county,  and  some  other  man  about  a  stack  of 

Page  Twenty-nine 


oats.  The  case  was  carried  through  the  courts  until  the 
costs  and  fees  amounted  to  about  a  thousand  dollars.  I 
recall  also  a  case  where  a  man  owed  another  $350.00.  The 
holder  of  the  note  refused  to  accept  anything  but  coin.  The 
debtor  became  angry,  went  all  the  way  to  Raleigh  on  horse 
back  and,  to  spite  the  holder  of  the  note,  bought  copper  cents 
to  the  amount  of  the  whole  debt,  quite  a  load  of  money, 
and  offered  it  for  his  note.  But  the  note  holder,  know- 
ing the  law,  refused  the  copper  coin,  except  one  dollar 
of  it,  as  he  had  a  right  to  do,  leaving  the  debtor  in  a  worse 
fix  than  before.  The  debtor  had  a  time  of  it  exchanging 
his  copper  for  silver  and  gold,  which  were  the  only  legal 
tender,  illustrating  an  old  saying  "the  biter  got  bit." 

At  this  time  Rev.  W.  R.  Webb  was  clerk  of  the  Superior 
Court  and  John  Bradsher  was  Clerk  and  Master.  I  don't 
know  what  his  duties  were,  but  I  remember  that  the  Judge, 
holding  Court  on  one  occasion,  asked  Mr.  Bradsher  where 
his  office  was  and  he  replied  that  it  was  in  his  saddle  bags, 
which  he  had  on  his  arm.  This  caused  much  amusement  in 
the  Court  room. 

John  Y.  Parker,  a  rich  old  bachelor,  whom  a  few  of  the 
oldest  men  of  the  county  remember,  was  a  prominent  figure 
of  the  town  for  many  years,  just  prior  to  the  time  the 
writer  came  to  town  to  live.  He  was  a  great  turkey  hunter 
and  when  hunting  he  wore  a  garb  to  make  him  look  as  much 
like  a  turkey  as  possible.  While  he  was  out  in  the  woods 
one  day  in  the  thick  brush  calling  up  turkeys  another  hunter 
passing  near  by,  mistook  him  for  a  turkey  and  shot  and 
killed  him.  This  occurred  in  October,  1852.  No  blame 
was  charged  against  the  slayer  by  the  Coroner's  Jury,  who 
felt  that  any  hunter  would  have  made  the  same  mistake 
under  similar  circumstances.     Parker,  it  is  said,  remarked 

that  morning  that  he  "expected  some  d n   fool  would 

shoot  him  for  a  turkey." 


Page  Thirty 


His  estate  proved  to  be  about  $85,000.00  in  cash,  a  big 
estate  in  those  days.  He  started  out  a  poor  boy,  ploughed 
or  did  anything  he  could  find  to  do,  at  twenty-five  cents  a 
day.  He  was  a  hard  worker,  sharp  trader  and  note  shaver. 
He  saved  the  pennies  and  dimes  as  well  as  the  dollars  and 
grew  rich.  He  left  his  money  to  his  kinspeople.  He  was 
buried  at  old  Cool-Spring  church,  and  his  grave  is  marked 
by  a  white  marble  slab,  as  may  be  seen  at  this  day. 

To  illustrate  his  shrewdness,  or  rather  his  daring,  I 
heard  Rev.  W.  R.  Webb  say  that  he  once  bought  a  tract  of 
land  at  a  public  sale  for  50  cents  per  acre.  Parker  found 
it  out,  and  without  saying  anything  to  Mr.  Webb,  sold  it 
for  one  dollar  per  acre  for  cash  and  made  the  purchaser  a 
deed  to  it.  A  day  or  two  afterward  he  saw  Mr.  Webb  and 
bought  it  for  75  cents  per  acre.  As  Parker  paid  him  ,ind 
took  the  deed  he  said :  "Webb,  I  have  already  sold  it  for 
a  dollar  per  acre,  made  the  buyer  a  deed  to  it  and  got  the 
money."  Mr.  Webb  said  to  him,  "You  rascal,  if  I  had 
known  it  I  would  have  had  you  put  in  jail."  They  both 
made  money  by  the  transaction,  and  Parker  thought  it  a 
good  joke. 

It  was  customary  then  for  candidates  seeking  office  to 
"treat"  to  whiskey  and  brandy,  or  "spirits,"  as  it  was  called 
then.  An  office  seeker  who  failed  to  do  this,  was  considered 
stingy  and  illiberal  and,  as  a  rule,  not  apt  to  be  elected.  I 
heard  of  one  candidate  for  the  Legislature,  who  "treated" 
to  a  whole  barrel  of  whiskey  at  one  precinct ;  of  course,  he 
was  elected.  "Up  country"  corn  whiskey  sold  cheap,  25 
cents  per  gallon  delivered  by  the  barrel.  It  retailed  at  30 
to  35  cents  a  gallon,  10  cents  per  quart,  5  cents  per  drink 
or  three  for  10  cents  and  was  sold  for  221/2  to  25  cents 
a  gallon  wholesale.  Anybody  could  make  and  sell  it  without 
license,  as  I  remember,  unless  they  sold  less  than  a  quart. 
This  was  a  time  of  "free  trade  and  sailors'  rights."  Mer- 
chants over  the  country  usually  kept  it  in  stock  and  sold 

Page  Thirty-one 


it  as  they  did  any  other  goods,  considering  this  a  respectable 
business.  Much  of  the  whiskey  was  hauled  here  from 
Alamance,  Guilford  and  other  counties  on  wagons  and 
peddled  over  the  country,  being  sold  by  the  quart  and  gallon. 
Both  whiskey  and  brandy  were  plentiful,  made  on  every 
spring  branch,  so  to  speak,  by  anybody  who  cared  to  do 
so.  Yet  there  was  less  drunkenness  then  than  at  a  later 
period  under  the  Revenue  laws.  Every  household  kept 
some  "spirits,"  to  set  out  to  visitors.  Many  of  the  ladies 
even  would  take  a  cup  of  coffee  at  the  table  "laced  with 
the  ardent"  and  no  harm  was  thought  of  it. 
ROXBORO,  N.  C. 
September,  1914. 


FARMING 

Editor  Courier: 

In  my  former  letter,  I  failed  to  tell  about  the  Cotton 
Gin  used  by  our  forefathers  of  two  or  three  generations 
ago.  It  was  a  combination  Cotton  Gin,  Corn  Mill  and 
Wheat  Threshing  Machine,  propelled  by  horsepower,  and 
built  in  a  large  barn  with  sheds  to  protect  the  machines, 
which  were  largely  of  wood,  from  the  weather.  This  ;na- 
chine  was  made  at  home,  but  of  course  required  good 
machinists  to  make  and  erect  it.  It  was  a  rather  crude  and 
clumsy  affair,  it  is  true,  but  served  a  valuable  purpose  in  its 
day. 

It  could  not  be  moved  from  farm  to  farm  like  the  thresh- 
ing machines  of  the  present  time  as  it  was  made  to  fit  the 
barn.  But  there  were  many  of  them  in  the  county.  Many 
of  our  older  men  and  some  of  the  younger  ones  still  re- 
member these  old  machines  with  large  wooden  cog  wheels 
and  machinery. 

Wheat  crops  were  small  and  wheat  was  mostly  threshed 
out  with  hand  flails,  or  trampled  out  by  horses  on  the  barn 

Page  Thirty-two 


floor.  After  this  came  the  horsepower  threshing  machine 
hauled  from  farm  to  farm.  It  was  called  the  (Iround 
Hog.  This  did  not  clean  the  wheat,  hut  left  it  in  chaff 
for  the  fan  mill  to  finish  up  hy  hand.  Now  we  have  the 
steam-propelled  thresher  and  cleaner,  which  prepares  the 
wheat  for  the  flour  mill.  As  for  cotton  seed,  it  was  used 
to  stop  gullies,  deemed  of  no  value  at  all. 

The  custom  was  to  cut  and  clear  all  the  land  possible, 
to  Innn  the  timber,  to  gcd  rid  of  it.  leaving  enough  for 
rails  for  fencing  and  for  fire  wood.  As  fast  as  the  land 
was  worn  out,  it  was  turned  out  to  wash  away  in  gullies 
and  waste  land  for  succeeding  generations  to  bring  up  again 
to  a  state  of  cultivation.  They  had  not  learned  the  art 
of  improving  the  land  while  making  a  crop  on  it.  From 
two  to  five  barrels  of  corn  was  a  fair  crop  to  the  acre. 
Now  by  improved  methods  we  produce  from  ten  to  forty- 
five  barrels  to  the  acre,  and  use  no  more  hand  labor  than 
was  used  then ;  and  at  the  same  time  we  improve  the  land 
while  making  these  crops.  Commercial  fertilizer  had  not 
come  into  use,  nor  seeding  clover  nor  legumes  for  improving 
the  soil. 

ROXBORO,  N.  C. 

March,  31,  1915. 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  COURT  HOUSE 

Editor  Courier: 

Person  county  was  cut  oflF  from  Caswell,  which  was 
originally  a  part  of  Orange  county  (the  mother  of  coun- 
ties) about  the  year  1790,  and  named  for  General  Person, 
of  Granville  county,  of  Revolutionary  fame.  The  Court 
House  for  Caswell  county  after  Person  was  cut  off  was 
for  a  while  in  Leasburg,  on  the  lot  afterwards  owned  by 
the  late  Hon.  George   N.  Thompson.     The  Court   House 

Page  Thirty-three 


for  Person  was  for  a  year  or  two  at  Paines  Tavern,  four 
miles  south  of  Roxboro.  During  this  time  a  committee 
was  appointed  by  the  Court,  or  Board  of  Magistrates,  to 
select  a  more  central  point  for  the  permanent  location  of 
the  Court  House,  and  the  committee  decided  upon  the  pres- 
ent location  as  being  very  near  the  center  of  the  county ; 
besides,  they  found  a  good  spring  of  water  near  by,  known 
ever  since  as  the  "Public  Spring;"  this  spring,  which  is 
near  the  rear  of  the  Primitive  Baptist  church,  had  much 
to  do  with  the  choice  of  location  of  the  county  seat ;  this  is 
a  rocky  section  and  wells  of  water  were  difficult  to  dig  and 
not  much  in  use. 

The  land  for  the  Court  House  Square  was  given  to  the 
county  by  Dempsey  Moore  in  1792.  The  deed  for  the 
same  can  be  seen  by  reference  to  Book  A,  in  the  Person 
County  Register  of  Deeds  office. 

Roxboro  was  named,  so  I  have  often  heard,  by  James 
Williamson,  a  native  of  Scotland  of  Angus  county,  who 
then  lived  two  miles  south  of  Roxboro  on  a  farm,  known 
a  long  while  as  the  "Williamson  Place,"  but  now  as  the 
"Murdock  Place"  and  belonging  to  the  writer.  It  had  one 
of  the  finest  homes  in  the  county.  Mr.  Williamson  was  a 
prominent  citizen.  He  had  the  Scotch  gift  for  accumulation 
and  consequently  owned  many  large  tracts  of  land  and  many 
negroes.  He  was  a  large  farmer  and  merchant,  having  a 
store  in  Roxboro  and  one  at  his  home.  He  was  married 
twice  and  reared  a  large  family.  He  educated  his  children 
in  the  best  schools  and  colleges  in  the  country,  thus  fitting 
them  for  places  of  honor  and  trust.  One  of  his  sons,  John 
Gustavus  Adolphus  Williamson,  was  many  times  elected  to 
the  Legislature  from  the  county,  and  to  other  honorable 
places.  He  was  also  appointed  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  a  diplomatic  post  in  Venezuela,  South 
America.  He  married  in  Philadelphia,  died  and  was  buried 
there.     Another  son   was   Dr.   James   M.   Williamson,   who 

Page  Thirty-four 


lived  in  Mempliis;  anotlicr  a  lawyer  in  Alamance  coun'.y; 
one  daughter  married  Judije  Dick  of  Greensboro;  one  mar- 
ried a  Mr.  Donahoe,  of  Milton,  N.  C. ;  another  married 
James  Ruffin,  of  Hillsboro,  and  the  others  married  promi- 
nent men.  Mr.  Williamson  died  about  the  year  1832  and 
was  buried,  himself,  both  wives  and  daughter,  Mrs.  Ruffm, 
at  the  old  home  place  near  Roxboro,  as  their  tomb  stones 
there  indicate  to  this  day. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Williamson,  this  home  was 
bought  by  Elder  Stephen  Pleasant,  a  prominent  Baptist 
minister  who  lived  there  many  years  and  raised  a  large 
family  of  children,  many  of  whom  were  prominent  in  the 
business  and  social  life  of  the  county. 

Roxboro  was  named  for  "Roxborough,"  a  shire  of  Scot- 
land on  the  English  border  and  not  on  account  of  the  rocky 
section  in  which  it  is  located.  The  name  has  been  variously 
spelled  in  my  own  time  on  maps  and  postoffice  books  "Rox- 
borough," as  well  as  "Roxboro." 

Our  county  has  always  been,  until  late  years,  a  very 
conservative  county,  rather  slow  in  voting  money  for  im- 
provements, or  for  men  to  office  who  favored  taxation  for 
internal  improvements.  Several  routes  for  railroads  were 
surveyed  through  the  county  long  years  ago,  one  as  far 
back  as  1852,  but  none  availed  until  years  later. 

Roxboro,  N.  C. 
October  6,  1915. 


TOBACCO  PEDDLING  AND  ROXBORO 
INCORPORATED 

Mr.  Editor: 

In  my  first  letter,  which  gave  a  description  of  Roxboro 
from  1853  to  1861,  I  left  out  some  things  of  interest  which 
I  might  have  noted. 

Page  Thirty-five 


At  this  time  there  was  quite  a  number  of  tobacco  fac- 
tories in  the  county;  and,  in  fact,  over  all  this  tobacco  belt, 
they  were  almost  as  numerous  as  cross-road  stores,  and  it 
seems  they  made  money.  No  stamp  tax  nor  license  to  man- 
ufacture it  was  required.  A  revenue  officer  had  not  been 
heard  of  in  this  part  of  the  world,  nor  was  any  needed,  as 
State  and  county  taxes  were  all  the  revenue  reqviired  in 
those  days  and  they  were  collected  by  the  sheriff. 

Our  tobacco  manufacturers  sold  much  of  their  tobacco 
"Down  the  Country"  as  they  called  the  eastern  part  of 
North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  They  ran  wagons  and  "ped- 
dled" it  out  along  the  roads  to  farm  houses  and  stores,  often 
selling  a  whole  load  of  ten  to  twenty  boxes  to  one  store. 
Many  people  made  it  their  business  to  trade  in  plug  tobacco 
the  year  round,  and  prospered  at  it.  These  peddlers  usually 
camped  by  their  wagons  at  night  in  town  or  village,  often 
on  the  road  side,  and  dealt  out  their  tobacco  by  the  plug  or 
in  "chunks"  and  found  ready  sale  for  it  at  big  profit.  As 
railroads  were  few  and  literally  "far  between"  they  had 
to  return  a  long  distance  to  load  up  their  wagons  for  the 
next  trip.  At  this  time  very  little  tobacco  was  grown  east 
of  Granville  and  Warren  counties;  thus  the  large  scope 
of  the  country,  even  to  the  sea  coast,  offered  a  splendid 
market  for  this  tobacco  wagon  trade.  Good  traders  often 
loaded  up  for  the  return  trip  with  salt  fish — shad,  herring, 
and  rockfish — which  found  ready  sale  all  the  way  back 
home.     They  thus  made  money  both  going  and  coming. 

But  the  advent  of  the  railroad  and  Federal  revenue 
laws  following  the  Civil  War  put  an  end  to  the  wagon  trade, 
and  peddling  of  tobacco.  Revenue  laws  forbade  the  re- 
tailing of  tobacco  except  by  local  dealers  who  had  govern- 
ment licenses.  The  sale  of  leaf  tobacco  was  also  for- 
bidden to  any  one  except  dealers  and  manufacturers ;  this 
law  is  still  in  effect.  The  U.  S.  Government  needed  money 
with  which  to  pay  the  war  debt  and  levied  a  heavy  tax  of 

Page  Thirty-six 


40  cents  a  pound  on  all  manufactured  tobacco  and  snufF,  and 
a  tax  of  $1.10  a  gallon  on  liquors.  Many  a  poor  fellow 
got  into  trouble  trying  to  evade  the  tax;  for  the  government 
generally  got  the  best  of  it  in  the  courts. 

Up  to  1854  Roxboro  town  had  not  been  incorporated, 
and  a  move  was  made  about  this  time  to  have  it  done. 
Chesley  Hamlen,  a  merchant  of  the  town,  took  the  lead  in 
the  matter;  a  petition  was  got  up,  signed  by  many  citi- 
zens of  the  village  and  sent  up  to  the  State  Legislature  then 
in  session.  A  charter  was  granted  incorporating  "the  town 
of  Roxboro."  There  was  much  sport  made  over  it  by  many 
people  in  and  out  of  town;  they  called  it  "The  City,"  and 
the  mayor,  "The  Lord  Mair."  A  mayor,  alderman  and 
town  constable  were  elected  and  sworn  in.  Col.  Wm.  R. 
Reade  was  the  first  mayor  and  made  a  very  acceptable 
officer.  I  don't  remember  who  the  other  officers  were.  The 
town  laws  were  strictly  enforced  for  a  while,  which  created 
much  prejudice  against  the  town,  and  no  doubt  injured  its 
business  to  some  extent. 

Up  to  this  time  we  had  practically  no  sidewalks,  and  the 
streets,  or  roads,  through  the  town  were  very  narrow,  only 
about  16  feet  wide.  They  were  worked  by  the  county  road 
hands  and  overseers  just  like  the  other  county  roads.  Mud 
holes  were  stopped  up  with  pine  brush  and  poles  with  a 
little  dirt  thrown  over  them.  Town  lots  were  enclosed  with 
rail  fences  except  that  some  of  them  had  a  plank  fence  or 
paling  to  the  front  yards.  Very  few  of  the  houses  had 
ever  been  painted  and  there  was  only  one  brick  house  in 
town.  This  was  a  small  house  on  the  corner  of  the  now 
Jones  Hotel  lot,  used  by  Reade  and  Hamlen  as  a  general 
store. 

The  new  corporation  by-laws  forbade  the  sale  of  liquors 
on  Main  Street.  Moses  Chambers,  however,  operated 
a  bar  and  sold  liquor  on  this  street  in  defiance  of  this 
ruling  of  the  town  Aldermen  and  was  indicted.  At  the  trial, 

Page  Thirty-seven 


Chambers  introduced  a  witness,  an  old  resident,  who  was 
asked  by  Josiah  Turner,  council  for  Chambers,  to  locate 
Main  Street.  This  witness  said  that  Main  Street  ran 
through  Roxboro  from  South  Boston  to  Hillsboro,  which 
caused  quite  a  laugh  in  the  court  house  at  the  expense  of 
the  town  authorities  who  were  prosecuting  the  suit.  The 
aldermen  lost  the  suit.  This  witness,  by  the  way,  was  a 
good  customer  of  Chamber's  bar  room. 

In  these  "good  old  times"  nearly  a'l  goods  were  sold  on 
time,  and  as  a  rule,  accounts  were  paid  only  once  a  year. 
Nearly  everyone  was  good  for  his  debts  as  there  was  no 
homestead  exemption  and  all  the  property  a  man  had  could 
be  sold  for  his  debts  except  the  family  clothing  and  a  few 
other  articles ;  the  chattel  mortgages  and  crop  lien  system 
were  not  known,  nor  was  a  land  mortgage  often  given ;  the 
people  lived  "the  simple  life"  and  a  little  money  went  a 
long  way. 

Roxboro,  N.  C. 
January  13,  1915. 


COUNTY  HEADS  OF  FAMILIES 

Editor  Courier: 

I  have  concluded  to  change  my  program  for  this  letter 
by  giving  names  as  far  as  I  can  recall  them  of  the  heads  of 
families  and  some  old  bachelors  too  who  lived  in  the  county 
during  the  period  of  my  early  years  in  Roxboro.  I  make 
the  list  entirely  from  memory;  I  have  not  consulted  any  rec- 
ord nor  asked,  any  one  for  information  on  the  subject. 
These  names  are  given  by  townships.  The  location  of  the 
individuals  in  townships  may  not  in  every  instance  be  ex- 
actly correct,  as  the  county  was  then  laid  off  in  districts, 
not  in  townships  as  now.  But  the  names  given  are  correct, 
as  I  was  personally  acquainted  with  nearly  all  of  them  and 

Page  Thirty-eight 


knew  of  the  others.  Most  of  these  men  served  with  valor 
in  the  Confederate  Armies  and  were  splendid  citizens  of 
whom  any  county  might  he  proud  and  posterity  hold  in 
grateful  remembrance.  I  do  not  include  the  names  of  any 
persons  who  lived  in  Roxboro  who  were  listed  in  a  former 
letter.  I  feel  sure  that  the  list  of  names  given  has  real 
historic  interest,  greater  perhaps  than  anything  else  I  might 
write,  as  it  portrays  at  a  glance  a  picture  gallery  of  the 
entire  citizenship  of  the  county  where  some  can  see  the 
name  of  ancestor  or  forefather  and  all  will  find  the  fore- 
fathers who  built  a  civilization  and  now  sleep  in  the  soil  of 
the  county. 

The  most  of  these  men  were  farmers  and  constituted 
the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  county. 

Roxboro  Township 

Josephus  Younger,  Tinsley  Brooks,  Captain  John  Bu- 
chanan, James  Buchanan,  Tinsley  Buchanan,  Solomon 
Walker,  John  Stansfieid.  David  W.  Brooks,  Thomas  H. 
Brooks,  John  Lewis  Brooks,  Alex  O'Briant,  Ransom  O'Bri- 
ant,  Albert  O'Briant,  Thomas  Westbrooks,  James  Jackson, 
Ben  Hix,  John  J.  Ellison,  Elder  Stephen  Pleasant,  Wil- 
liam R.  Pleasant,  Brown  Pleasant,  Reuben  Long,  Sr., 
RatlifT  Long.  G.  C.  Pucci,  James  Hamlen,  William  M. 
Brooks,  Matthew  Daniel,  William  W.  Wrenn,  Jerry 
Satterfield,  Joseph  Wrenn,  Mac  Humphries,  Simon  Gentry, 
Abner  Williams,  John  D.  Carver,  Jackson  Winstead, 
Jesse  C.  Clayton,  Thomas  Clayton,  Jr.,  Hardy  Clay- 
ton, Calvin  Daniel,  John  C.  Clayton,  Thomas  K.  Glenn, 
Thomas  Horton,  Thomas  Byas,  Micajor  G.  Thomas, 
James  L.  Wagoner,  John  D.  Clayton,  Sr.,  Major  Davis, 
Sam  Wright,  William  Mann,  Martin  Gravitt,  George 
Satterfield,  Sr.,  J.  P.  Traynham,  Jesse  Monday,  Bob 
Westbrooks,  Solomon  Painter,  William  Slayton,  Draper 
Carver,  Calvin  C.  Clayton,  George  Daniel,  James  Cow- 
Page  Thirty -nine 


horn,  Sam  Draper,  Henry  True,  James  A.  Westbrooks, 
John  B.  Stanfield,  Martin  Clayton,  Talton  Bowles,  Benja- 
min Hicks,  John  Long,  Sr.,  Jack  Wilson,  Robert  Whitt, 
Drewey  Gravitt,  Madison  Bowden,  Allen  Hicks,  Benjamin 
Wheeler,  Thomas  Humphries,  Richard  Bowen,  William  A. 
Ellison,  Garrett  Brooks,  Jacob  G.  Slaughter,  John  Dunn, 
John  Wrenn,  Sr.,  Phil  Dunn,  Jackson  Dunn,  John  Bum- 
pass,  Sr.,  George  W.  Burch,  Edward  Forlines,  William  D. 
Satterfield,  John  O'Briant,  Ben.  Wheeler,  Elijah  O'Briant, 
Matt  Nelson,  Robert  Daniel,  Romulus  Daniel,  Green  Dan- 
iel, John  Wrenn,  Sr.,  Grandison  Wrenn,  George  Capril, 
Garrett  Brooks,  George  R.  Satterfield,  Gabe  Bumpass. 

HOLLOWAYS    TOWNHIP 

William  W.  Humphreys,  Major  T.  A.  Yancey,  Dr. 
James  L.  Sanford,  William  Gillis,  Sr.,  John  Neal,  James 
W.  Beavers,  William  W.  Ramsey,  Major  James  Street,  Ga- 
briel Bailey,  Sr.,  Gabriel  Bailey,  Jr.,  William  Pool,  Elder 
John  E.  Montague,  Madison  Walker,  Robert  D.  Bumpass, 
Sanders  Day,  Jas.  W.  Blackwell,  James  Walker,  Dr. 
William  Merritt,  Jesse  D.  Walker,  Baldy  Ramsey,  Billy 
Holloway,  David  Holloway,  Robert  Jones,  Sr.,  Jack  Hum- 
phries, Jones  Drumright,  John  Baird,  Sr.,  Dr.  William 
Baird,  Thomas  A.  Baird,  Erasmus  Wilkerson,  Peyton 
West,  Dr.  Ben  Wilkerson,  Larkin  Brooks,  Sr.,  William 
T.  Woody,  Robbin  Brooks,  Thomas  Woody,  Solomon 
Walker,  Wm.  Link,  Matt  Nelson,  Haywood  Nelson,  Moses 
A.  Woody,  Rufiin  Woody,  J.  D.  Wilkerson. 

WooDSDALE  Township 

John  Rogers,  John  Barnett,  Sr.,  John  A.  Barnett,  John 
Barnett  (long  Jack),  Cam  Barnett,  Sam  A.  Barnett,  Ab 
Barnett,  John  H.  Clay,  Hugh  Woods,  Sr.,  Hugh  Woods, 
Thos.  Woods,  Jr.,  William  Baird,  Sr.,  Charles  G.  Mitchell, 


Page  Forty 


Sr.,  Elder  A.  N.  Hall,  Elder  Durluim  Hall,  David 
Brooks,  Sr.,  John  Brooks,  Esq.,  Asa  Brooks,  Sr., 
Reuben  Brooks,  Moses  Walker,  Solomon  Walker,  Reu- 
ben Long,  Stanford  Long,  Dempsey  Brooks,  Major 
Green,  Alex  Walker,  John  Bailey,  Jesse  Chambers, 
Martin  Chambers,  Josiah  Carver,  Col.  Henry  Carver, 
William  Jones,  John  IL  Monday,  William  H.  Bailey, 
Matt  Long,  Richard  Long,  Jake  Long,  Dr.  C.  H.  Jordan, 
Ben  Chambers,  Sam  Jones,  George  Duncan,  Burl  H. 
Dillehay,  Arthur  Dillehay,  Reuben  Carver,  Elder  Erank 
L.  Oakley,  Moses  L.  Oakley,  James  Barnett,  Sr.,  Robert 
Palmer,  Major  S.  C.  Barnett,  James  M.  Barnett. 

Mt.  Tirzaii  Township 

G.  G.  Moore,  Dr.  E.  A.  Speed,  Julius  Burton,  Alex 
Gray,  Benjamin  R.  Moore,  William  T.  Noell,  Alonzo  R. 
Moore,  Rev.  Junius  P.  Moore,  Rev.  T.  W.  Moore,  Alford 
Moore,  Henry  J.  Montgomery,  Squire  Meadows,  Noah  H. 
Meadows,  Granville  Andrews,  Thomas  D.  Clayton,  Monroe 
Cash,  Charles  Holeman,  Sr.,  James  Holeman,  Sr.,  Andrew 
Gray,  David  Rountree,  Richard  Holeman,  Sr.,  James 
Webb,  Moses  Chambers,  Sr.,  Griffin  Jones,  Elder  Jesse 
Mooney,  Isaiah  Bumpass,  M  D.  C.  Bumpass,  Dr  J.  W. 
Hamlett,  W.  F.  Reade,  William  Gray,  Hiram  Satterfield, 
Buck  Blalock,  Elder  A.  Blalock,  Henry  C  Sweeny,  Samuel 
Clements,  Thomas  Sneed,  Stephen  Sneed,  Alex  Jones. 

Allensville  Township 

Thomas  T.  Allen,  Drewey  Allen,  James  Bullock,  James 
Snipes,  John  Lunsford,  Robert  O.  Burch,  John  Yarbro, 
James  W.  Townsend,  Frank  Townsend,  Madison  Yar- 
bro, Henderson  Yarbro,  Frank  Day,  Sr.,  John  Day,  Sr., 
Moses  Hicks,  James  H.  Chandler,  Henderson  Chandler, 
David  Yarbro,  Robert  Beasley,  Spotts  B.  Royster,  William 
B.  Greenwood,  Woodson  Lyon,  William  H.  Thomas,  James 

Page  Forty-one 


H.  Harris,  Elder  E.  J.  Montague,  Henry  H.  Duncan,  Wil- 
liam Clayton,  Jesse  B.  Clayton,  John  G.  Dixon,  Green 
W.  Denny,  William  H.  Royster,  Robert  Royster,  Lem.  G. 
Clayton,  Solomon  O'Briant,  Dr.  William  E.  Oakley,  James 
G.  Burch,  W.  H.  Lawson,  Governor  Slaughter,  Simon  Gen- 
try, Jacob  G.  Slaughter,  Solomon  Slaughter,  James  Bullock. 

Bushy  Fork  Township 

William  Arch  Bradsher,  Nathaniel  Torian,  William 
Whitfield,  A.  C.  Foushee,  Burnel  Russell,  James  Bradsher, 
John  Bradsher,  Sr.,  James  O.  Bradsher,  Armistead  Henry, 
John  H.  Henry,  Robert  D.  Henry,  Alex  Gordon,  Richard 
Gordon,  William  Marshall,  Sidney  Marshall,  Ben  Davis, 
Richard  Hargis,  Sr.,  Orval  V.  Hargis,  William  H.  Long, 
Sr.,  William  H.  Long,  Jr.,  George  Briggs,  Sr.,  Samuel  H. 
Briggs,  Sidney  O'Briant,  Elder  Ingram  Chandler,  Elder 
Wells,  Elder  William  Burns,  Hasten  Blalock,  Hasten  Rim- 
mer,  Wilson  McCullock,  Calvin  Hawkins,  Dolphin  Villines, 
Silas  Moore,  Willis  Villines,  Thomas  Villines,  Nat  Villines, 
Robert  Malone,  Washington  Malone,  John  Whitfield,  John 
Moore,  Sr.,  B.  D.  Harris,  John  Blackwell,  Dr.  R.  S.  Baynes, 
Dr.  James  McMullen,  John  Mansfield,  John  Smith,  Sr., 
Calvin  Brown,  Rev.  S.  Young  Brown,  Ransom  O'Briant, 
George  Broach,  Asa  Fuller,  Stephen  Monday,  Thomas 
Whitfield,  Sr.,  Thomas  Phelps,  Alex  O'Briant,  Richard 
Lee,  James  Allen,  Sr.,  Reuben  Allen,  Richard  Broach,  John 
Newton,  Lewis  G.  Stanfield,  Nat  Broach,  Nathan  Oakley, 
Thomas  L.  Whitfield,  Alex  Whitfield,  Green  W.  Brown, 
Richard  Phelps,  Bently  McKee,  Mincey  Whitfield,  Edwin 
Whitfield,  Samuel  Horton,  William  Cooper,  Daniel  W. 
K.  Richmond,  William  B.  McCullock,  William  Chatham, 
John  E.  Harris,  James  Whitfield,  Sr.,  Silas  Moore,  William 
Daniel,  Hardy  Hurdle,  Bedford  Hurdle,  Alex  M.  Long, 
Richard  Broach,  Walker  Davis,  Sanders  Johnson,  W.  H. 
Smith,    James    Smith,    Thomas    Whitfield,   Jr.,    William 

Page  Forty-two 


A.  Lee,  William  Gregory.  Jackson  Jones,  Wm.  Hamlen,  Geo 
L.  Torian,  Andrew  Torian,  Ben  Javis. 

CuNiNGHAM  Township 

Jeff  Franklin.  Jarrell  Powell.  John  W.  Cunningham. 
Thomas  McGehee.  Haywood  Williams,  Sandy  Williams, 
Green  Williams,  William  Williams,  Joseph  Pointer,  Jeffer- 
son Jones,  Dr.  Jack  Jones,  Barksdale  Jones,  Dr.  John  C. 
Terrell,  Joseph  Barker,  Rev.  Addison  Stanfield,  Obadiah 
Faulkner,  Montford  Faulkner,  Thomas  Faulkner,  John 
Faulkner,  Kinchen  Newman,  James  Shanks,  Abner  Dixon, 
Sam  Dixon,  Gary  Williams,  Sam  Pointer,  Banks  Newman. 

Olive  Hill  Township 

George  C.  Rogers,  George  A.  Rogers,  Henry  A.  Rogers, 
Stephen  Wilkerson,  Obadiah  Pearce,  Sr.,  William  Pearce, 
Carter  Woods,  George  Tapp,  Samuel  Johnson,  Sr..  John 
Bradsher.  Sr..  William  Paylor,  John  Paylor,  Bird  Paylor, 
Robert    H.    Hester,   A.    J.    Hester,    Nicholas   Hester,    Sr., 
John  Bradsher,  Jr.,  Kindle  VanHook,  Solomon  VanHook, 
David  VanHook,  Daniel  Sergeant,  James  T.  Sergeant,  Wil- 
liam  G.    Winstead,    Wilson    Yeallock.    Franklin    Yeallock, 
Joseph  Sallie,  Abner  Bradsher,  Olive  Bradsher,  Jesse  Brad- 
sher, Stephen  Garrett,  James  Grubbs,  Elijah  Snipes,  Jerry 
Brooks,  James  J.  Scoggin,  Barton  Woods,  Joseph  Coleman, 
Sr.,  Joseph  Coleman,  Jr.,  Robert  Coleman,  John  Monday, 
Thomas    Davenport,    Lewis    S.    Morton,    Reuben   Walton, 
Ransom  Frederick,  Ben  Jacobs,  John  Tally,  Stephen  Win- 
stead,   Britton  Wagstaff,  John  Wagstaff,  James   B.  Wag- 
staff,   John   M.   Morton,   Monroe   Yarbro,   Albert  Yarbro, 
Rev.  B.  W.  Williams,  Camel  VanHook,  Col.  John  C.  Van 
Hook,  Charles  Mitchell.  Brown  Pleasant,  William  B.  Pleas- 
ant, Joseph  W.  Neal.  Nathan  Fox,  Carter  Lee,  Billy  Brad- 
sher,   Sr.,    Richard    Bradsher,    Sr.,    William    W.    Royster, 
John  G  Lee,  Ambrose  Loftis,   Issac  Satterfield,   Sr.,  Au- 

Pagc  Forty- three 


gustine  VanHook,  Monroe  Bradsher,  Andrew  Jackson,  Sr., 
Andrew  Jackson,  Jr.,  Nathan  Oakley,  Ab  Bradsher,  James 
Nelson,  Anderson  Harris,  Ezekiel  Woods,  Dr.  J.  J.  Thax- 
ton,  George  W.  Trotter,  Richard  Lee,  John  Scoggins,  James 
M.  Snipes,  John  C.  Wilkerson,  Obadiah  Pearce,  Jr.,  James 
T.  Sergeant,  Thomas  Lawson,  Charles  Bolton,  Dixon  Bol- 
ton, Henderson  Bolton,  William  Bolton,  James  Scott,  James 
W.  Featherstone,  George  W.  Whitfield,  John  T.  Nelson,  J. 
P.  Harris,  Geo.  E.  Harris. 

Flat  River  Township 

Joseph  Lunsford,  Nicholas  W.  Allen,  Allen  H.  Luns- 
ford,  George  H.  Daniel,  Captain  Jacob  A.  Loy,  James  H. 
Gates,  James  T.  Gates,  John  M.  Gates,  John  Hamlen,  Sr., 
Isaiah  Gates,  Richard  H.  Gates,  Robert  Trimm,  Jacob 
Hormer,  Samuel  H.  Glements,  Jesse  A.  Lunsford,  Henry 
Tapp,  James  Tapp,  John  Trimm,  James  Satterfield,  Sr., 
George  Gray,  Sr.,  George  T.  Gray,  Alford  Gray,  William 
Daniel,  John  J.  Rogers,  Elmore  Gates,  Gilbert  Moore,  Wil- 
liam Timberlake,  Thomas  G.  Green,  John  W.  Pearce,  Wil- 
liam P.  Satterfield,  William  A.  Barton,  Terrell  Moore, 
Ruffin  Rhew,  H.  H.  Garrett,  John  Burton,  Sr.,  Green  W. 
Blalock,  Dudley  Burton,  Thomas  Barton,  Larry  H.  Moore, 
Isaac  Satterfield,  Jr.,  David  Evans,  William  H.  Harris, 
Thomas  Trimm,  Rev.  John  H.  Loy,  Robert  R.  Moore, 
John  Jones,  Stephen  Phillips,  Henry  Burton,  Larry  Welch, 
William  B.  Mann,  Larry  Blackard,  Lewis  Frederick,  Jesse 
Walker,  Sr.,  Thos.  C.  Green  and  Dr.  W.  M.  Terrell. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 

Nov.  10,  1914. 


Page  Forty-four 


TORIES  AND  PAINES  TAVERN 

Editor  Courier  : 

When  I  was  a  boy  many  interesting  stories  were  told 
of  the  time  when  the  British  Army  marched  through  our 
county  during  the  Rcvohitionary  War,  under  the  command 
of  Lord  Cornwalhs. 

One  of  them  is  to  the  effect  that,  in  1781,  when  he 
was  moving  east  from  Caswell  or  Alamance  county  through 
Person  county  on  the  way  to  Yorktown  he  passed  what 
is  now  known  as  Roseville,  four  miles  southwest  of  Rox- 
boro.  A  man  living  there  by  the  name  of  Rose,  whose  smoke 
house  was  near  the  road  side,  had  a  large  lot  of  provisions 
cooked  up  and  put  under  lock  and  key.  When  the  army 
arrived  he  handed  General  Cornwallis  the  key,  saying  as 
he  pointed  to  it :  "Here,  my  Lord,  is  the  key  to  the  smoke 
house.  It  is  full  of  provisions,  open  it  and  help  your- 
selves." This  man  Rose  was  what  was  called  a  Tory,  a 
member  of  a  political  party  that  was  opposed  to  the  war, 
and  was  in  sympathy  with  the  British. 

The  soldiers  took  the  provisions  and  went  on  to  old 
Paines  Tavern,  two  or  three  miles,  and  stacked  their  guns, 
"Flint  and  Steel"  muskets,  and  spent  the  night  in  camp.  A 
big  white  oak  there  was  ever  afterward  known  and  pointed 
out  as  the  "Cornwallis"  tree.  The  writer  has  often  seen 
this  splendid  old  tree  and  it  has  not  been  so  long  since 
it  died  and  was  cut  down.  "Paines  Tavern"  was  then  a 
place  of  note,  a  popular  camping  ground  for  emigrants 
from  a  large  section  of  the  country,  moving  to  the  West 
to  seek  new  homes.  Paines.  a  man  of  some  wealth,  owned 
the  place  and  kept  a  house  of  entertainment  for  the  public 
called  a  "Tavern,"  a  name  perpetuated  even  today 

This  writer  remembers,  when  a  boy,  seeing  a  few  of 
the  old  Revolutionary  soldiers  of  Person  county,  who  had 
land  warrants  as  an  extra  bounty  given  for  service  in  help- 

Page  Forty-five 


ing  to  free  our  country  from  the  British  yoke.  These  land 
warrants  conveyed  to  each  of  them  160  acres  of  Western 
land,  a  quarter  section.  Very  few  of  them  ever  went  out 
to  occupy  their  land,  but  sold  their  claims  to  land  speculators. 
ROXBORO,    N.   C. 

October  30,  1915. 


HOGS,  AN  INDIAN  SHOW  AND  COFFEE 

Mr.  Editor  : 

I  have  decided  to  write  another  short  letter  covering  the 
period  from  1853  to  1860,  thus  "threshing  the  straw"  over 
again. 

During  these  old  times,  it  was  not  an  unusual  sight  to 
see,  during  fall  and  winter  months,  droves  of  fat  hogs  some- 
times 300  or  400  head  on  the  roads  driven  hundreds  of 
miles  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  dealers  drove 
them  along  the  public  roads  from  town  to  town,  from  state 
to  state,  looking  for  purchasers.  It  must  have  taken  a  long 
time  to  dispose  of  them  even  at  low  prices  for  the  majority 
of  the  people  raised  their  own  supply  of  pork,  and  many 
of  them  had  a  surplus  for  sale.  This  will  interest  boys  and 
girls  of  the  Pig  Clubs  of  today. 

On  one  occasion  during  court  week  General  Chambers, 
who  was  keeping  hotel,  finding  his  house  full  of  guests 
and  no  coffee  to  serve  could  find  in  the  whole  town  nothing 
but  a  cheap,  shabby-looking,  small  grain,  greenish  coffee, 
which  he  parched  and  served.  To  his  surprise  the  guests, 
one  and  all,  praised  the  coffee  and  inquired  the  price  and 
brand.  With  its  appearance  in  mind  he  quickly  replied  that 
it  was  "seed  tick"  brand.  This  circumstance  was  said  to 
have  made  this  coffee  famous  and  it  is  still  sold  as  "seed 
tick"  coffee. 


Page  Forty-six 


1  remember  well  the  first  show  I  ever  saw,  it  was  an 
Indian  exhibition,  known  as  tl>e  "Kashawgance  Indian 
Company",  consisting  of  an  Indian  chief,  a  few  other 
Indian  men,  some  Indian  women  and  one  small  l)oy,  travel- 
ing in  wagons.  As  it  was  a  bad,  rainy  day  when  they  were 
in  Roxboro,  they  used  the  court  house  instead  of  the  tent. 
The  only  act  of  the  show  which  I  now  call  to  mind,  was 
that  of  Pocahontas  saving  the  life  of  Capt.  John  Smith. 
It  seemed  so  real  to  me  that  I  have  never  forgotten  the 
scene.  At  night  the  Indian  chief  lectured  in  the  court 
house  to  a  good  crowd  on  the  life  and  habits  of  the  red 
men.  The  lecture  was  highly  complimented.  Many  of  our 
people,  having  never  seen  an  Indian  before,  were  much 
interested  in  them,  espeially  in  the  little  boy. 

The  first  animal  circus  and  show  the  writer  ever  saw 
was  on  the  lot  near  the  place  where  the  Methodist  church 
now  stands.  This  was  Robinson  &  Eldrids  Exhibition  and 
the  act  that  made  the  most  lasting  impression  on  me  was 
that  of  a  lady  putting  her  head  in  a  lion's  mouth,  a  very  silly 
and  foolish  act.     This  was  considered  a  great  show. 

Roxboro,  N.  C. 

February  3,   1915. 


PREACHERS  OF  MY  EARLY  LIFE 

Editor  Courier: 

Having  been  requested  by  a  granddaughter  of  one  of 
the  old  pioneer  preachers  of  this  county  to  give  the  preach- 
ers of  my  early  life  a  writing,  this  I  will  attempt  to  do, 
giving  a  list  of  their  names  as  I  remember  them,  as  well  as 
the  denomination  to  which  they  belonged. 

As  the  Primitive  Baptists  were  the  first  preachers  whose 
services  I  attended  I  will  give  their  names  first.  They 
were :     Elders   Ingram   Chandler,   John     Stadler,    William 

Page  Forty-seven 


Burns,  Elder  Wells  (a  blind  preacher),  Hensley,  Andrew 
N.  Hall  and  Durham  Hall  his  father,  David  R.  Moore, 
James  J.  Scoggins,  George  T.  Coggin,  R.  D.  Hart,  John 
H.  Daniel,  Ross,  Bell,  Drewry  Seit,  Dameron,  P.  D.  Gold, 
L.  I.  Bodenheimer  and  C.  B.  Hassell.  Elder  John  Stadler 
was  considered  by  his  people  one  of  the  greatest  preachers 
of  his  time  and  had  a  large  following.  Elder  A.  N.  Hall, 
who  was  pastor  of  churches  in  this  county  for  more  than 
fifty  years,  was  a  great  preacher,  highly  esteemed,  not  only 
by  his  own  churches  and  people,  but  by  the  people  in  gen- 
eral, both  in  this  and  other  counties.  Several  of  these 
preachers  lived  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State  but  made 
preaching  tours  up  the  country  as  far  as  this  and  other 
sections  west  of  us. 

The  Missionary  Baptist  preachers  whom  I  remember  in 
the  "long  ago"  were :  Elders  James  King,  Stephen  Pleas- 
ant, Brown,  John  E.  Montague,  Elias  Dodson,  F.  M.  Jordan, 
Elder  Waitte,  J.  J.  James,  Poindexter  (of  Virginia),  Robert 
Jones  and  John  Mitchell,  J.  D.  Hufifham,  Dr.  Wm.  Oakley, 
and  Sam  Mason.  Some  of  these  were  considered  great 
preachers.  One  of  them,  Elder  F.  M.  Jordan,  has  been  preach- 
ing more  than  sixty  years.  Elder  Dodson  was  an  eccentric 
brother,  and  traveled  most  of  his  life  as  agent  for  missions, 
especially  "Indian  Missions,"  which  was  his  great  hobby. 
Many  of  the  older  people  remember  him  well  at  this  late  day. 

The  Methodist  ministers  whom  I  remember  in  early 
and  middle  life,  were:  Revs.  Ira  T.  Wyche,  Alford  Nor- 
man, Jas.  Jamieson,  Benj.  M.  Williams,  J.  P.  Moore,  T. 
W.  Moore,  Jas.  Reid,  Fletcher  Reid,  William  M.  Jordon, 
P.  W.  Archer,  Lewis,  S.  S.  Bryant,  T.  A.  Boone,  Jas.  H. 
Brent,  W.  R.  Webb,  H.  H.  Gibbons,  W.  E.  Pell,  Tillett,  A. 
W.  Mangum,  and  Jesse  Page.  Many  of  these  men  were 
eminent  preachers. 

The  next  in  point  of  numbers  are  the  Presbyterians, 
who  had  but  a  small  following  in  the  county  and  still  have 

Page  Forty-eight 


only  one  or  two  cliurchcs :  Revs.  Addison  Stanfield,  who 
lived  in  the  county,  Hines,  of  Mikon,  and  T.  U.  Faucett. 
of  Orange  county,  held  services  in  the  Court  House  or  in 
the  Methodist  church  in  Roxboro  at  stated  times.  This 
was  before  the  Presbyterian  church  was  built. 

Tiie  Episcopalians  had  only  one  church  in  the  county, 
Cunningham's  Chapel. 

The  first  sermon  I  remember  to  have  heard  was  at  old 
Wheeler's  Church  near  Gordonton.  Though  a  small  boy  1 
recall  many  circumstances  connected  with  my  trip  there, 
and  what  I  saw  on  the  way.  The  greatest  thing  was  the 
sight  of  the  Gordon  residence,  which  was  new  and  had 
just  been  painted  snowy  white.  This  being  the  first  white 
house  I  had  seen  it  made  a  lasting  impression  on  my  young 
mind.  I  thought  then  this  must  be  a  heaven  below,  and 
that  no  care  or  trouble  could  enter  its  white  walls.  The 
preacher  on  this  occasion  was  Elder  Ingram  Chandler,  then 
a  popular  Primitive  Baptist  pastor.  I  still  remember  some 
of  the  people  whom  I  saw  there,  and  the  manner  of  the 
preaching,  singing  and  the  good  attention  to  the  preaching 
by  the  congregation.  I  thought  then  that  all  church  mem- 
bers had  a  passport  to  Glory  land. 

Roxboro,  N.  C. 

December  15,  1915. 


ANOTHER  PREACHER  AND  LEASBURG 

Editor  Courier: 

In  my  last  letter  I  wrote  of  the  preachers  of  the  various 
denominations  who  served  in  this  county  during  my  boy- 
hood days  and  middle  life,  but  I  overlooked  the  names  of 
some,  among  whom  was  Rev.  Solomon  Lea,  of  Leasburg. 
who  spent  his  life  in  school  work  and  preaching  the  gospel 
in  Person  and  Caswell  counties.    He  was  the  first  president 

Page  Forty-nine 


of  Greensboro  Female  College,  but  resigned  this  position 
and  established  the  "Summerville  Institute"  for  girls  and 
young  ladies  at  Leasburg,  in  Caswell  county,  which  he 
kept  up  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  1896. 

Mr.  Lea  did  a  great  work  for  the  cause  of  education 
to  which  a  great  many  ladies  now  living  can  testify.  This 
school  was  patronized  by  Caswell,  Rockingham,  Person, 
Orange  and  other  counties  in  North  Carolina,  and  by 
Halifax,  Pittsylvania  and  other  counties  in  Virginia.  It 
was  in  a  great  measure  the  life  of  the  town  socially  and 
otherwise.  No  one  has  ever  been  found  to  fill  the  gap 
caused  by  the  death  of  this  good,  sweet-spirited,  useful 
man.  Leasburg  must  have  been  a  very  healthful  town,  as 
it  was  noted  for  its  old  citizens,  many  living  to  be  upward 
of  80  and  some  very  near  to  100  years  of  age. 

Other  preachers  omitted  were  Elders  Jesse  Mooney,  Q. 
A.  Ward  and  J.  P.  Tingen,  of  the  Primitive  Baptist  faith. 
These  have  all,  except  one,  passed  to  their  reward. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 
January  5,   1916. 


EARLY  TEACHERS  AND  LEASBURG 

Mr.  Editor: 

In  this  letter  I  shall  give  a  list  of  the  school  teachers 
of  my  early  years. 

My  first  teacher  was  Mr.  James  O.  Bradsher,  my  next 
was  Major  Burnel  Russell,  next  in  order  were  William 
Whitfield,  Franklin  Yeallock,  Moore  W.  Dollahite,  James 
R.  Foushee,  my  oldest  brother,  and  Col.  Plenry  A.  Rogers. 
Colonel  Rogers  taught  the  last  school  which  I  attended. 
This  was  in  1859,  in  the  old  brick  Academy  in  Leasburg, 
near  the  town  cemetery.  Colonel  Rogers  had  quite  a  large 
school   of  boys  and  young  men,   who  taxed  his  time  and 

Page  Fifty 


patience  to  a  high  degree,  as  he  had  a  house  full  and  no 
assistant  in  the  work.  I  can't,  at  this  late  day,  see  how 
he  managed  to  get  through  it  so  well,  giving  general  satis- 
faction to  the  boys  and  patrons  of  the  school.  Of  all  this 
crowd  of  boys  who  attended  the  school,  there  are  but  three 
or  four  now  living  that  I  am  aware  of.  One  of  this  number 
is  my  friend  C.  M.  G.  WagstatT,  of  the  Concord  section  of 
this  county  (died  since  letter  was  written). 

I  remember  that  old  Mr.  William  Lea  had  a  fine  orchard 
of  apples  near  the  Academy  to  which  the  boys  gave  special 
attention ;  we  appropriated  our  full  share  of  fruit  without 
"leave  or  license." 

Leasburg  then  had  a  population  of  300  or  350  includ- 
ing two  schools,  who  were  as  good  people  as  could  be  found 
anywhere.  Situated  near  the  Person  line  most  of  the 
families  living  there  were  either  from  Person  county  or 
closely  related  by  marriage  or  other  ties  to  the  Person 
people.  The  school  patronage  was  largely  from  this  county. 
For  a  town  of  its  size,  it  had  a  large  trade,  having  several 
stores  of  good  size  for  that  day,  run  by  popular  merchants ; 
it  had  also  wood  shops,  blacksmith,  harness  and  saddle 
shops,  a  hotel,  a  tailor  shop,  a  shoe  shop,  a  picture  gallery, 
tan  yard,  besides  the  two  large  schools. 

Leasburg  produced  many  men  of  note,  among  them 
was  Hon.  Jacob  Thompson,  member  of  President  Buchan- 
an's cabinet,  also  of  President  Davis'  cabinet  of  the  Con- 
federate States.  It  was  claimed  by  some  people  that  in 
surveying  the  line  between  Caswell  and  Person  for  a  di- 
vision, Leasburg  ought  to  have  been  given  to  Person  county 
by  right. 

The  other  teachers  in  this  county  whom  I  remember 
were  Wilson  Yeallock,  Thomas  J.  Farrar,  Plosea  A.  Carver, 
Henry  J.  Montgomery,  Thomas  T.  Satterfield,  James  H. 
Woody,  John  M.  Morton,  James  L.  Wagoner,  Samuel  H. 
Horton,  Q.  A.  Ward,  Geo.  M.  Bradsher,  Samuel  Jacobs, 

I 

Page  Fifty-ofw 


Jones  Drumright,  Parham  O'Briant,  Mrs.  W.  O.  Bowler, 
and  later  on  were  Miss  Corinna  Bradsher,  Mrs.  Bettie 
Brooks,  Miss  Sarah  Gallagher,  John  W.  Coleman,  James 
Bradsher,  Jr.,  John  A.  Bailey,  Miss  Brock  Satterfield,  Sam- 
uel Y.  Brown,  Obadiah  Faulkner,  Robert  Jones,  and  W. 
T.  Blackwell.  Mrs.  Richard  Gordon  also  taught  a  select 
school  for  young  ladies  at  Gordonton.  Elder  T.  J.  Horner 
established  and  taught  a  school  at  Bethel  Hill  for  many 
years,  which  was  re-established  about  1888  and  continued 
on  a  much  larger  scale  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Beam  until  the 
school  buildings  and  residences  were  burned  at  a  great  loss 
to  him,  as  well  as  to  the  whole  county.  Mr.  Beam  and 
his  good  wife  did  a  great  work  in  promoting  this  school  so 
long,  more  for  the  good  of  others  than  for  themselves,  ex- 
cept in  the  satisfaction  of  having  given  the  helping  hand 
to  hundreds  of  young  men  and  young  women.  All  of  these 
teachers,  except  four  or  five,  have  passed  from  the  stage 
of  action,  leaving  their  imprint  for  good  on  the  generations 
following  them. 

ROXBORO,    N.   C. 

January   10,    1916. 


THE  DOCTORS 

Mr.  Editor: 

In  this  letter  I  shall  speak  of  the  physicians  who  prac- 
ticed their  profession  in  this  county  when  I  was  a  youth 
and  during  my  middle  life. 

I  planned  to  do  this  many  weeks  ago  but  was  delayed 
on  account  of  the  great  calamity  which  has  crossed  my 
pathway  recently  in  the  death  of  my  oldest  son,  Howard, 
who  has  fallen  in  the  midst  of  his  young  manhood  and 
usefulness,  and  whom  1  had  hoped  to  have  to  lean  on  for 
comfort  and  advice  in  my  declining  years.     For  a  long  time 


Page  Fifty-two 


after  this  sad  occurrence  I  felt  very  little  like  writing  or 
doing  anything  else. 

These  are  the  names  of  the  doctors  as  1  remember 
them:  The  first  one  1  think  of  was  James  McMullen,  my 
father's  family  physician,  away  back  in  1846.  Then  come 
Doctors  Durham;  Gibson;  James  Lea,  of  Leasburg;  C.  H. 
Bradsher,  "Old  Prac"  as  everybody  called  him,  a  very  pop- 
ular physician,  with  a  large  practice  all  over  the  county; 
C.  H.  Jordan;  John  C.  Terrell;  Cook;  R.  C.  Baynes ;  Sam 
Jacobs;  J.  J.  Thaxton ;  J.  A.  Stanfield,  of  Leasburg;  J.  L. 
Sanford;  William  L  Jordan;  Dr.  Brooks,  of  Milton;  Wil- 
liam Strudwick,  of  Hillsboro;  J.  W.  Plamlett,  Richard 
Marable ;  John  H.  Edwards ;  Currie  Barnctt ;  and  later  on, 
come  Drs.  W.  M.  Terrell;  John  B.  Bradsher;  Thomas 
Oakley;  Bob  Hester;  E.  J.  Robertson;  Jake  Thompson,  of 
Leasburg;  and  E.  A.  Speed.  All  these  have  passed  away 
and  their  places  are  filled  by  others  who  have  adopted 
great  changes  in  the  manner  of  treatment  of  the  diseases  of 
the  human  body,  but  no  improvement  in  their  devotion  to 
science  and  the  good  of  their  fellowmen. 

It  was  then  the  custom  to  wrap  fever  patients  in  blank- 
ets, even  in  hot  weather;  now  the  patient  is  put  in  ice  to 
reduce  fever.  In  former  times  they  even  bled  for  many 
diseases,  which  practice  has  now  been  entirely  abandoned. 
It  is  said  that  George  Washington  in  his  last  sickness  was 
literally  bled  to  death,  in  order  to  cure  him. 

The  doctor  used  to  carry  his  drug  store  in  his  saddle 
bags,  prescribe  for  the  patient  and  compound  the  medicine 
on  the  spot.  At  that  time,  we  must  remember,  drug  stores 
were  few  and  usually  miles  away,  our  nearest  being  distant 
twenty  to  thirty  miles,  at  Milton,  Hillsboro,  Oxford  or 
Raleigh. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 

March  1,  1916. 


Page  Fifty-three 


DOCTORS  AND  DENTISTS 

Dear  Editor: 

In  my  last  letter  I  told  you  about  some  of  the  doctors 
of  the  "long  ago,"  as  well  as  of  some  of  more  recent  years, 
but  I  find  that  I  omitted  the  names  of  a  few  whom  I  now 
recall:  William  Merritt,  Junius  T.  Fuller,  Charlie  Brad- 
sher,  John  C.  Dickens,  all  prominent  physicians,  while 
among  the  dental  surgeons  were :  W.  G.  Bradsher,  C.  G. 
Siddle,  and  Carter  Day.  Dr.  Siddle,  an  itinerant  dentist, 
from  Caswell  county,  operated  in  many  sections  of  this 
county  and  had  a  large  practice.  At  that  time,  however, 
people  must  have  had  better  teeth  than  at  present ;  at  any 
rate,  there  was  not  so  much  demand  for  the  services  of  the 
dentist  as  now.  Most  of  the  work  consisted  of  extracting 
and  filling  teeth.  A  full  set  of  teeth  on  a  plate  was  rather 
unusual,  and,  as  little  attention  was  given  to  the  teeth,  the 
services  of  the  surgeon  was  not  so  much  called  for  by  the 
average  person,  except  to  extract  the  aching  tooth ;  and  for 
this  service  even  the  medical  doctor  with  set  of  forceps 
sufficed. 

In  speaking  of  the  custom  of  bleeding  for  the  cure  of 
many  diseases  it  is  said  that  the  barbers  formerly,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  tonsorial  work,  bled  sick  people  as  a  part  of 
their  profession;  hence,  the  present  day  barber  sign  of 
white  and  red,  representing  the  blood  flowing  from  the 
naked  arm. 

The  old  professional  men  have  passed  away  and  with 
them  many  of  the  old  ideas  and  styles  of  practice,  being 
succeeded  by  men  with  new  and  improved  ideas,  and  re- 
cent discoveries  and  inventions.  These  men  were  often  more 
than  mere  practitioners  but  were  men  of  vision  and  had 
the  true  scientific  imagination.  This  writer  recalls  hear- 
ing Dr.  C.  H.  Jordan,  late  of  Person  county,  speak,  some 
forty  years  ago,  of  the  possibility  of  the  wireless  telegraph 

Page  Fifty-four 


and  at  that  time  described  how  it  could  be  done.  His  plan 
to  aconiplish  it  was  just  about  the  same  as  is  now  in  use 
by  the  Marconi  system.  Of  course  he  was  considered  a 
"dreamer"  and  a  "crank."  It  would  be  rash  to  say  that 
he  was  the  first  to  think  of  this  wonderful  idea.  He  was 
a  gifted  and  well  educated  man  and  pondered  much  on  the 
lines  of  modern  invention.  I  never  thought  anything  more 
of  the  matter  until  the  newspapers  a  few  years  ago  began 
to  discuss  the  discovery  of  the  wireless  system,  which 
brought  back  to  my  mind  the  words  of  this  gifted  Person 
county  physician. 
ROXBORO,    N.    C. 

May  3,  1916. 


MERCHANTS 

Editor  Courier: 

After  a  long  silence  I  have  concluded  to  write  you  once 
more  about  the  good  old  times  "befo'  de  wah,"  giving  the 
names  of  the  merchants  of  the  county,  outside  of  Rox- 
boro. 

First  I  will  begin  at  Bushy  Fork,  my  old  home  township, 
and  name  them  consecutively  in  rotation  around  the  county. 
William  A.  Bradsher  (father  of  our  Superior  Court 
clerk)  was  the  first  merchant  I  ever  knew.  He  sucessfully 
conducted  a  store  at  Bushy  Fork,  formerly  known  as  "Nor- 
fleet's  Store,"  for  a  great  number  of  years  doing  a  large 
business  for  a  country  store  in  those  days.  He  was  also 
a  large  farmer  and  mill  ow^ner,  and,  in  general,  a  prominent 
and  useful  man  in  his  section,  popular  and  much  beloved. 
For  one  or  two  terms  he  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legis- 
lature. 

The  next  in  order  was  Robert  H.  Hester,  father  of 
the  late  Captain  A.  J.  Hester.  He  was  merchant,  mill 
owner,  one  of  our  largest  farmers  and  land  owners  and 

Page  Fifty-five 


was  possessed  of  large  means.  He  was  elected  to  the  State 
Legislature  several  sessions,  though  he  was  not  an  office 
seeker.  His  was  a  case  where  the  office  sought  the  man 
and  he  was  never  defeated  when  he  consented  to  accept 
a  nomination,  as  he  had  the  confidence  of  the  people,  and, 
I  think,  gave  entire  satisfaction  to  his  constituents  as  a  leg- 
islator. He  was  a  Justice  of  Peace  for  many  years,  and  a 
wise  counsellor,  whose  advice  was  often  sought  by  his 
neighbors  when  in  trouble.  He  raised  a  large  and  sterling 
family  of  children,  some  of  whom  still  survive.  He  was 
a  popular,   highly  esteemed,   and  useful   man. 

C.  S.  Winstead,  merchant,  lawyer,  farmer,  mill  owner 
and  all  round  business  man,  was  a  success  in  all  his  call- 
ings. He  was  in  public  life  a  great  many  years,  as  county 
attorney,  member  of  both  House  and  Senate,  and  revenue 
collector  under  President  Grant.  He  was  courtly  in  his 
manners  and  held  many  other  offices  of  trust  and  served 
well  his  day  and  generation,  being  a  useful  and  popular 
man.  He  was  one  of  the  largest  land  owners  of  our  county, 
and  had  accumulated  quite  a  large  estate.  He  died  in 
1908  at  an  advanced  age  of  about  84  years. 

William  G.  Winstead,  of  Olive  Hill,  merchant  and 
farmer  of  large  means,  was  a  prosperous  and  useful  man 
in  the  county.  He  never  aspired  to  any  office,  though  he 
was,  I  think,  Justice  of  Peace  in  his  district  for  a  long  time, 
and  a  county  commissioner  for  one  or  two  terms  after 
the  war,  a  good  man  and  popular  in  his  section. 

The  next  in  order  was  Col.  John  W.  Cunningham, 
father  of  our  Col.  John  S.  Cunningham,  merchant,  farmer, 
mill  owner,  legislator,  and  all  round  business  man.  He  was 
most  successful  in  business  and  was  the  largest  land  owner 
and  farmer  and  wealthiest  man  of  our  county  in  his  day. 
He  was  elected  to  the  State  Legislature  and  served  in  both 
houses  many  times,  or  as  often  as  he  would  have  it.  He 
was  never  defeated  in  an  election  for  any  office,  which  is 

Page  Fifty-six 


evidence  of  his  popularity  witli  the  people  of  his  native 
county. 

John  Rogers,  of  Woodsdale,  was  merchant  and  farmer, 
who  successfully  conducted  a  business  for  many  years  at 
that  point,  both  as  merchant  and  moderately  large  farmer. 
Some  of  his  descendants  are  still  living  in  that  section. 

The  next  were  A.  Bailey  and  Company  (Albert  Bailey 
and  Alex  Walker,  both  farmers),  who  conducted  a  store 
about  half  a  mile  south  of  Bailey's  Bridge  and  commanded 
a  good  trade  for  years;  Mr.  Bailey  died  and  Mr.  Walker 
moved  to  Durham,  where  he  spent  the  latter  part  of  his  life. 

John  F.  Neal,  I  think,  had  a  store  at  his  home  in  Hol- 
loways  Township,  and  David  Holloway  merchandised  for 
years  at  Daysville  in  the  same  township. 

The  next  in  the  round  was  Major  James  Street,  father 
of  our  esteemed  fellow  citizen,  T.  H.  Street,  Esq.,  at  Mill 
Creek.  He  was  a  merchant,  farmer,  mill  owner,  conducted 
a  store  there  for  many  years,  owned  much  land  and  farmed 
on  a  large  scale.  He  was  very  successful  in  business  and 
was  perhaps  the  wealthiest  man  in  the  township. 

The  next  in  order  were  Bentley  Vaughan  and  Sweaney, 
at  or  near  Moriah,  merchants,  farmers,  and  sawmill  men. 

At  Moriah  also  was  M.  D.  C.  Bumpass,  who  was  a 
merchant  and  farmer  and  who  made  a  success. 

The  next  in  order  were  Allen  and  Royster,  at  Allens- 
ville  (H.  Royster  and  T.  T.  Allen),  who  were  success- 
ful in  business. 

At  Center  Grove  was  the  firm  of  Day  &  Townsend, 
who  sold  goods  several  years,  and  were  succeeded  by  Ben. 
A.  Thaxton,  merchant  and  farmer,  who  continued  the 
business  the  rest  of  his  life. 

William  T.  Noell,  at  Mt.  Tirzah,  was  a  merchant, 
farmer,  tailor,  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  a  county  commis- 
sioner for  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life,  a  good  business 
man,  a  popular,  useful   and  much-beloved  citizen.     He   it 

Page  Fifty-seven 


was,  as  I  have  stated  before,  that  introduced  the  sewing 
machine  into  North  Carolina.  Mr.  Noell  was  never  an 
office  seeker,  but  had  tact  and  talent,  fitting  him  to  fill  ac- 
ceptably any  office  within  the  gift  of  his  county  people. 

Thomas  Webb,  at  Hurdle's  Mill,  was  merchant,  farmer 
and  mill  owner. 

J.  A.  Lunsford  and  Brother,  at  "High  Hill,"  near  old 
Flat  river  church,  were  merchants,  farmers,  mill  owners 
and  tobacco  manufacturers.  They  were  large  dealers  for 
a  small  country  village  and  at  one  time  kept  the  finest  stock 
of  goods  in  the  county. 

The  next  and  last  I  can  recall  was  Augustin  Van  Hook, 
at  VanHook's  mill,  about  a  mile  west  of  Paines  Tavern. 
He  had  a  store,  mill,  and  farm  and  lived  on  the  farm,  lately 
occupied  and  owned  by  the  late  Lewis  S.  Morton.  Mr. 
VanHook  moved  from  the  county  to  the  South  or  West 
when  the  writer  was  a  small  boy. 

ROXBORO,   N.   C. 

June  28,  1916. 


TOBACCO  MANUFACTURERS 

Editor  Courier: 

I  have  heretofore  given  you  the  names  of  the  merchants 
of  the  county  during  and  prior  to  the  Civil  War ;  but  I  find 
that  I  omitted  the  name  of  John  ("Jack")  D.  Wilkerson, 
who  conducted  a  store  for  years  in  the  front  yard  at  his 
home  (Buck  Walker  place)  in  Holloways  Township.  He 
afterwards  joined  in  partnership  with  Gabe  Jones  and 
moved  the  store  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  road  in  front 
of  the  old  Billy  Link  place. 

The  object  of  this  letter  is  to  give  you  a  list  of  the 
tobacco  manufacturers  of  the  county  in  those  old  by-gone 
days.     I  shall  begin  in  Roxboro.     First  of  all  were  Satter- 

Page  Fifty-eight 


field  and  Dickens,  whom  I  have  mentioned  before.  They 
were  the  pioneers  in  the  tobacco  business  here  and  they 
carried  it  on  successfully.  As  no  license  or  stamp  tax  was 
required  anyone  could  engage  in  the  business  who  cared 
to.  After  a  few  years  Mr.  Dickens  died  and  was  succeeded 
by  Geo.  W.  Trotter,  and  the  business  was  continued  under 
the  firm  name  of  Satterfield  and  Trotter.  After  a  few 
more  years  Trotter  died  and  was  succeeded  by  Ab  Barnett, 
the  firm  name  being  Satterfield  and  Barnett.  Satterfield 
and  Barnett  carried  on  the  business  until  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War.  Another  was  the  firm  of  Winstead  &  Co.  (John 
M.  Winstead,  E.  G.  Reade  and  C.  S.  Winstead).  Both 
these  firms  made  "flat  tobacco"  as  plug  tobacco  was  called, 
distinguishing  it  from  the  home-made  twist.  It  was  packed 
in  plain  oak  boxes  made  in  the  factory,  containing  about 
40,  50  or  100  pounds  each.  It  was  usually  branded  "Pound 
Lumps"  in  addition  to  the  trade  mark,  the  plugs  weigh- 
ing four  and  eight  ounces.  They  made  no  twist  or  smok- 
ing tobacco,  as  smoking  tobacco  in  commercial  shape  was 
very  little  known.  Tobacco  was  scarce  at  the  close  of  the 
war  and  brought  good  prices,  for  war  disorganized  labor, 
and,  in  fact,  all  our  labor  then  was  needed  to  raise  supplies 
for  the  army  and  folks  at  home.  Being  a  luxury,  it  could 
be  dispensed  with  in  a  measure,  though  the  soldiers  of  the 
Confedrate  army  were  supplied  with  tobacco  rations  most 
of  the  time  during  the  war,  and  it  was  said  they  often 
swapped  it  to  the  Yankee  soldiers  for  coffee  as  they  had 
opportunity. 

Reade  and  Norwood  also  operated  a  tobacco  factory 
in  Roxboro.  for  many  years  before  and  after  the  war,  as 
did  John  G.  Dillehay  and  Company. 

Tobacco  manufacturers  also  were  J.  A.  Lunsford  and 
Brother,  at  High  Hill,  near  the  present  home  of  Mrs.  Joe 
L.  Wilkerson.  They  had  quite  a  little  town  there  then, 
all  their  own,  consisting  of  a  tobacco  factory,  store,  wood- 

Pagc  Fifty-nine 


shop,  blacksmith  shop,  tan  yard,  drug  store  and  several 
residences.  It  was  the  home  also  of  a  local  physician. 
But  there  is  little  sign  now  of  this  "city,"  only  a  residence 
or  two  left  to  tell  of  the  bustle  of  the  past. 

James  I.  Cothran  manufactured  tobacco  on  a  small 
scale  for  years  near  Mt.  Tirzah  and  Ike  Allen  near  Old 
Wheeler's  Church,  and  Haywood  Williams  at  his  home 
near  Cunningham.  Chas.  G.  Mitchell  was  also  an  old 
manufacturer  of  tobacco  at  his  home  near  Woodsdale,  as 
were  also  Jesse  and  Alex  Walker,  at  Daysville. 

The  manufacture  of  smoking  tobacco  had  not  then  be- 
gun as  a  business;  nor  was  yellow  or  fiue-cured  tobacco 
known.  About  the  year  1857  Thomas  Slade,  a  farmer 
of  near  Locust  Hill,  Caswell  county,  made  the  discovery 
by  accident.  In  those  days  everybody  tried  to  cure  by 
sunshine  or  with  wood  burned  in  trenches  under  their  to- 
bacco hanging  in  barns.  Mr.  Slade's  wood  ran  short  and 
having  a  lot  of  charcoal  on  hand  conclvided  to  substitute 
the  coal  for  wood,  burning  the  coal  in  the  trenches  instead 
of  the  wood,  and  he  found  that  the  tobacco  cured  up  a 
yellow  color  instead  of  red.  This  seemed  a  miracle,  some- 
thing "new  under  the  sun"  and  it  created  quite  a  sensa- 
tion all  over  the  tobacco  region.  Other  farmers  soon 
caught  on  and  used  charcoal  too,  thus  introducing  the 
yellow  weed  all  over  the  tobacco-growing  belt  of  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia.  After  this,  sheet-iron  flues  were 
introduced,  which  made  the  curing  of  yellow  tobacco  more 
convenient  and  saved  labor  and  time.  I  heard  Hon.  Geo. 
W.  Brooks,  brother  to  Mr.  JeiT  Brooks,  of  Woodsdale, 
claim  that  he  was  the  first  man  that  ever  suggested  the 
use  of  sheet-iron  flues  for  the  curing  of  tobacco. 

When  first  offered  on  the  markets,  this  yellow  tobacco 
sold  for  fabulous  prices.  Up  to  this  time  the  prevailing 
prices  for  red  tobacco  ranged  from  $2.50  to  $10.00  and 
$12.00,  a  hundred  pounds.  An  average  of  $7.00  to  $9.00  all 

Page  Sixty 


round  wa;^  considered  a  good  price ;  but  yellow  or  "coal 
cured"  tobacco  sold  so  high  that  most  of  the  farmers  in 
this  Piedmont  section  were  soon  raising  the  "golden  weed" 
and  selling  it  for  golden  prices.  The  news  spread  like  fire 
and  soon  Eastern  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  took 
up  the  raising  of  tobacco  and  even  beat  us  at  our  own 
game,  at  least  in  brightness  of  color,  if  not  in  quality. 
Thus  they  killed  our  monopoly  on  fancy  bright  tobacco. 

In  the  old  days  of  red  tobacco,  a  rather  amusing  and 
unusual  circumstance  occurred  on  the  warehouse  sale  floor 
in  Clarksville,  Virginia,  which  was  the  main  tobacco  market 
for  this  whole  section.  Old  man  John  D.  Clayton,  of  Per- 
son county,  and  one  of  the  most  honest  men  in  it,  had  a 
load  of  tobacco  on  the  floor.  It  was  being  sold  and  the 
price  of  one  pile  had  gone  up  as  high  as  $40.  The  old 
man  got  excited  and  rushing  among  the  bidders  told  them 
to  stop  bidding,  that  $40  was  more  than  it  was  worth.  This 
circumstance  gave  him  the  name  of  "Forty  Dollar"  John 
Clayton  ever  afterward.  At  this  time  $15.00  was  con- 
sidered a  high  price. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  yellow  tobacco  period,  our  farmers 
did  not  put  so  much  stress  on  raising  tobacco  as  they  have 
since,  but  raised  supplies  of  "hog  and  hominy"  and  almost 
everything  else  to  live  on. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 

August  29,  1916. 


MY  FIRST  RAILROAD  TRIP 

Mr.  Editor: 

In  1857  railroads  were  few,  and  in  Person  county  they 
were  things  that  we  felt  belonged  to  other  and  distant  com- 
munities. Henderson  depot  on  the  old  Raleigh  and  Gaston 
Railroad  (now  a  part  of  the  Seaboard  Air  Line),  was 
our  nearest  shipping  point,  40  miles  distant.     At  that  time 

Page  Sixty-one 


the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Road,  in  West  Virginia,  was  the 
nearest  railroad  to  the  west  of  us.  The  old  North  Caro- 
lina road  to  the  south  of  us  was  not  completed,  nor  was 
the  Richmond  and  Danville,  north  of  us.  Our  county  was  a 
part  of  a  wide  stretch  of  country  without  railroad  facilities. 
My  first  sight  of  a  railroad  was  with  Mr.  J.  A.  Lunsford, 
for  whom  I  was  clerk  in  his  store.  On  the  morning  of 
the  2d  of  March  we  left  his  home  near  Roxboro  in  his 
carriage  for  Oxford,  and  spent  the  night  at  the  Oxford 
Hotel,  kept  by  Samuel  A.  Williams.  We  left  Oxford  at 
daybreak  next  morning,  the  3d,  on  the  stage  (mail  coach) 
for  Henderson,  arriving  there  for  breakfast  at  Alley's 
Hotel.  Here  I  first  saw  a  railroad  and  train.  We  boarded 
the  train  and  I  began  my  first  railroad  ride  from  Hender- 
son to  Weldon.  We  took  dinner  at  the  Weldon  Hotel, 
kept  by  W.  W.  Harper.  We  left  Weldon  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon 
Railroad,  for  Petersburg,  Virginia,  arriving  at  Peter.sburg 
about  dark.  There  we  took  supper  at  the  Bollingbrook  Hotel 
kept  by  Thomas  W.  Epps.  We  left  Petersburg  after  dark 
on  the  Petersburg  and  Richmond  Railroad  arriving  in  Rich- 
mond early  in  the  night,  and  left  Richmond  for  Washing- 
ton, on  the  Richmond,  Fredericksburg  and  Potomac  Rail- 
road, but  making  the  latter  part  of  the  journey  by  boat. 
We  reached  Washington  about  sun-up,  and  I  had  my  first 
view  of  our  great  national  Capitol.  This  was  on  the  4th 
of  March,  the  day  on  which  James  Buchanan  was  inaug- 
urated President  of  the  United  States.  We  did  not  re 
main  to  witness  the  inauguration,  but  went  on  by  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad  to  Baltimore.  We  stopped  at  the 
Fountain  Hotel,  kept  by  J.  W.  Clabaugh,  and  after  spend- 
ing a  few  days  in  Baltimore  buying  a  stock  of  goods,  we 
went  on  to  Philadelphia  via  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington 
and  Baltimore  Railroad.     Here  we  stopped  at  the  Ameri- 


Page  Sixty-two 


can  Hotel.  In  Philadelphia  we  bought  a  part  of  our  stock 
of  goods.  On  our  return  home  we  spent  a  day  in  Peters- 
burg concluding  our  purchases. 

This  was  a  big  trip  for  me,  which  I  have  never  for- 
gotten, and  I  still  remember  the  names  of  most  of  the 
firms  from  whom  we  bought  goods  in  each  city. 

No  through  tickets  were  sold,  nor  through  trains  run. 
Each  road  sold  tickets,  and  ran  trains  for  itself.  We  had 
to  change  cars  and  buy  tickets  at  each  road  terminus,  and 
look  after  our  own  baggage,  as  there  was  no  checking  bag- 
gage through.  We  bought  tickets  at  Henderson,  Weldon, 
Pe'tersburg,  Richmond,  Washington  and  Baltimore.  It  took 
two  and  a  half  days  and  nights  of  travel  to  go  from  Person 
county  to  Baltimore,  a  trip  one  can  now  make  in  about 
twelve  hours,  with  two  hours  to  spare  on  the  way. 

We  had  to  change  cars  on  arrival  in  each  city.  There 
were  no  street  cars  and  to  go  from  one  depot  to  another  we 
had  to  go  through  the  city  by  private  conveyance  or  on 
the  "omnibus  of  the  line,"  paying  extra  for  transportation 
of  ourselves  and  baggage.  On  arriving  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore,  there  were  so  many  people  on  the  streets  it 
looked  to  me  as  if  it  must  be  "court  day." 

Everything  looked  novel  and  strange  to  a  boy  of  eigh- 
teen from  the  "backwoods"  on  his  f^rst  visit  to  a  great 
city,  but  I  hugely  enjoyed  seeing  the  big  stores  and  various 
things  of  interest.  In  Philadelphia,  I  visited  Independence 
Hall  Girard  College,  Franklin's  grave,  and  other  places 
of  note.  I  gratefully  remember  that  Mr.  Lunsford  took 
much  interest  in  having  me  see  the  things  worth  while.  I 
recall  that  the  conductor  on  my  first  train  from  Henderson 
was  not  dressed  in  railroad  uniform,  but  in  a  black  suit  with 
Prince  Albert  coat  and  a  "high-top"  black  silk  hat,  gold 
watch  and  ^hain  and  was  as  polite  as  a  "dancing  master," 
and  proud  of  his  job.     This  may  have  been  Captain  Tim- 

Page  Sixty-three 


berlake,  who  served  the  Raleigh  and  Gaston  Road,  I  think, 
for  over  fifty  years  and  was  then  pensioned  for  the  rest 
of  his  life. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 

January  20,  1920. 


1861  to  1865 

Editor  Courier  : 

In  the  Civil  War  although  North  Carolina  was  slow  to 
leave  the  old  compact,  it  sent  more  soldiers  to  the  field,  it  is 
claimed,  than  any  other  Southern  State.  Our  little  county 
of  Person,  20  miles  square,  put  in  the  field  800  to  1,000 
men,  taking  them  from  17  to  55  years  of  age.  Four  full 
companies  of  100  men  each  went  as  volunteers  from  the 
county  in  the  early  part  of  the  war  and  a  great  many  en- 
listed in  companies  from  other  counties.  A  large  number 
was  drafted,  and  later  as  a  last  resort  a  great  many  more 
were  conscripted  to  fill  depleted  ranks  and  sent  to  the  camps 
of  instruction  to  fit  them  for  service  in  the  ranks.  The  boys 
under  18  were  called  the  Junior  Reserves  and  the  men  over 
45,  Senior  Reserves,  thus  taking  them  "from  the  cradle  to 
grave." 

Enthusiasm  ^vas  so  great  in  the  early  stage  of  the  con- 
flict it  was  impossible  to  obtain  guns  and  munitions  of  war 
to  equip  the  boys  who  were  ready  and  anxious  to  go  to  the 
front.  Excitement  ran  high ;  drums,  fifes  and  brass  bands 
were  heard  on  all  sides.  The  boys  were  eager  for  the 
fray  and  even  afraid  the  war  might  end  before  they  had 
a  chance  at  the  "Yankees." 

After  the  first  year  of  the  war  when  Southern  seaports 
were  closed  and  there  was  no  exchange  of  cotton  and  tobacco 
in  foreign  trade  we  had  to  depend  almost  entirely  on  home- 
made goods  and  supplies  of  all  kinds,  even  for  guns  and  all 
war  ammunition.  It  was  very  difficult  at  times  to  procure  even 

Page  Sixty-four 


salt ;  the  people  finally  dug  up  the  dirt  floor  in  their  smoke 
houses  and  extracted  the  salt  there.  Our  good  women  brought 
out  their  old  hand  looms,  spinning  wheels,  cotton  and  wool 
cards  which  had  been  laid  aside  for  years,  spun  and  wove 
dress  goods  for  themselves,  cloth  for  men  and  boys,  cloth- 
ing, blankets,  sheets,  counterpanes,  stockings,  socks,  and  in 
fact  almost  everything  to   wear.     They   made  and  "wore 
their  homespun  dresses  with  much  grace"  as  the  old  Dixie 
song  expresses  it.     A  great  many  things  of  necessity  and 
especially  of  luxury  had  to  be  abandoned  wholly;  for  in- 
stance, parched  corn,  wheat  and  rye  were  substituted  for 
cofTee,  home-made  sorghum  for  sugar  and  molasses.     Sor- 
ghum was  called  "long  sweetening."     Pine  knots  and  tallow 
dip  candles,  home-made  hats  for  the  ladies,  their  own  make 
and  fashion,  wool  hats  for  men  and  boys  made  at  home, 
wood  bottom  shoes  and  many  other  substitutes  were  resorted 
to  from  necessity. 

During  the  last  year  of  the  war  prices  "soared  like  the 
lark ;"  for  instance,  cofTee,  when  it  could  be  had  at  all,  sold 
for  $15.00  to  $25.00  a  pound;  nails,  $10.00  a  pound;  a 
bunch    of    cotton    warp,    $100.00;    flour,   $100.00   a   barrel, 
horses,  $1,000.00  to  $3,000.00  each,  and  other  things   in 
proportion.     These  prices  were,  of  course,  in  depreciated 
money,  which  was  more  plentiful  than  anything  else.    Many 
of   our  people  had  invested  their   money  in   Confederate 
bonds  and  lost  all   with  the  downfall  of  the  new  govern- 
ment.   The  close  of  the  war  left  the  whole  of  the  Southern 
country  bankrupt,  our  money  and  bank  currency  worthless ; 
railroads  and  rolling  stock  were  worn  out;  cities  and  farm 
houses  in  the   war   zone   were  burned   down ;   cattle,  hogs, 
horses  and  sheep  were  stolen  or  killed.    The  negroes  being 
set  free,  our  best  labor  was  gone.     Desolation  prevailed  on 
every  side  and,  worst  of  all,  thousands  of  our  best  men 
were  left  on  the  battle  field  to  return  no  more,  and  there 
were  thousands  of  sad  homes,  widows  and  orphans.     But 

Page  Sixty- five 


such  is  war.     General  Sherman  did  not  miss  it  much  in  his 
definition  of  war. 

Roxboro's  and  Person  county's  contribution  to  the  war 
was  most  worthy.  John  Graves  Dillehay  was  the  first  cap- 
tain of  the  first  company  of  volunteers  that  went  to  the 
war  from  this  county  in  April  or  May,  1861.  John  L. 
Harris  was  captain  of  the  second,  John  C.  VanHook  of 
the  third,  John  G.  Jones  of  the  fourth,  James  Holman 
succeeded  Dillehay  as  captain  of  the  first  company.  Cap- 
tains Harris,  VanHook  and  Jones  were  all  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  Colonel.  In  fact,  as  I  remember,  Colonel  Jones 
was  made  a  brigadier  general  by  the  War  Department  for 
gallant  service  on  the  battle  field.  He  was  killed  in  action 
near  Petersburg  before  he  took  command  of  his  brigade. 
Among  all  the  men  and  boys  who  went  to  the  "front"  from 
this  county  only  about  135  or  140  are  still  with  us.  But 
they  are  no  longer  "boys."  They  are  now  the  old  men  of 
the  county. 

During  the  war  period  the  population  of  Roxboro  increas- 
ed to  about  400  or  450,  several  families  having  moved  in, 
among  whom  were  J.  D.  Wilkerson,  H.  R.  Boshammer,  shoe- 
maker; W.  P.  Wilkins,  lawyer;  Col.  J.  W.  Hunt,  saddle 
and  harness  maker;  W.  H.  Smith,  sheriflF;  Geo.  W.  Nor- 
wood, tobacco  manufacturer;  Dr.  J.  T.  Fuller;  S.  C. 
Barnett,  lawyer;  Jas.  T.  Critcher,  buggy  and  wagon  maker, 
and  William  H.  Foushee,  wood  worker  and  buggy  manu- 
facturer. 

These  new  comers  added  much  to  the  business  and 
social  status  of  the  town.  In  1861,  a  bank  was 
organized  here  with  a  cash  capital  of  $25,000.00  known 
as  the  bank  of  Roxboro,  with  Hon.  E.  G.  Reade,  presi- 
dent, and  Col.  C.  S.  Winstead,  cashier,  but  soon  closed 
its  doors  as  a  necessity  of  war.  New  stores  were  opened 
by  Hamlin  and  Hunt,  Wright  and  Clay,  Barnett  and  O'- 
Brien and  others,  but  they  all  went  out  of  business  before 

Page  Sixty-six 


the  war  closed.  At  tliis  time  goods  of  every  kind  were 
so  scarce  that  it  was  difTicult  to  find  or  purchase  anything 
at  all,  even  writing  material,  pocket  knives  or  handker- 
chiefs. But  conditions  changed  rapidly  when  peace  was 
made. 

ROXBORO,    N.    C. 
October  20,  1914. 


THE  OLD  SOLDIERS 

Editor  Courier  : 

In  this  number  of  reminiscences  I  have  decided  to 
give  as  near  as  I  can  a  list  of  all  the  old  Confederate  sol- 
diers now  living  belonging  to  the  Jones  Camp  of  U.  C.  V., 
No.  1206,  Person  county,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  still  res- 
idents of  this  county.  The  most  of  them  were  natives  of 
this  county  and  enlisted  here  for  the  war. 

J.  A.  Long,  commander  of  camp,  A.  R.  Foushee,  adju- 
tant, J.  Y.  Allen,  A.  V.  Allen,  John  H.  Burch,  Thomas  W. 
Blackard,  Sam  Bowes,  George  W.  Burch,  W.  A.  Blaiock, 
Marion  T.  Carver,  John  S.  Coleman  (captain),  Levi  M. 
Cothran,  William  D.  Cothran,  L.  B.  Chandler,  Alex  Clay- 
ton, Sol  D.  Clayton,  Ralph  Clayton,  Thomas  T.  Clayton, 
Stephen  A.  Clayton,  J.  W.  Duncan,  James  J.  Dixon,  Robert 
J.  Day,  T.  C.  Ellis,  Haywood  Foushee,  Stephen  P.  Gentry, 
Ben  M.  Gentry,  Geo.  D.  Stephens,  D.  W.  Thaxton,  John  L. 
Wiley,  Henry  Spec  Williams,  T.  J.  Warren,  James  E. 
Yancey,  E.  B.  Reade,  W.  S.  Lawson,  James  M.  Long, 
Byrd  Long,  J.  J.  Brooks,  James  R.  Gooch,  John  Whitt, 
D.  C.  Cozart,  Dr.  P.  G.  Pritchett,  David  A.  Hicks,  F. 
M.  Clayton,  James  Matt  Brooks,  Pleasant  T.  Gentry, 
John  J.  Hudgins,  James  B.  Hudgins,  D.  Harris,  J.  W. 
Hicks,  Smith  C.  Humphries,  Thomas  J.  Jones,  William 
Latta,  A.  M.  Long,  J.  P.  Long,  Wesley  Laws,  S.  M.  Long, 

Page  Sixty-seven 


George  W.  Moore,  James  S.  Noell,  E.  M.  O'Briant,  S.  R. 
Parham,  George  B.  Pearce,  William  J.  Ragan,  Richard  T. 
Ramsey,  John  E.  Smith,  A.  D.  Talley,  Charles  W.  Loftis, 
John  J.  Coleman,  J.  R.  Hayes,  Frank  M.  Daniel,  W.  H. 
Holsomback,  Stephen  M.  Lee,  W.  R.  Neal,  James  H.  Barn- 
well, D.  C.  Lunsford,  John  D.  Harris,  David  Slaughter, 
W.  C.  Lawson,  George  G.  Moore,  George  F.  Holloway, 
James  A.  Carver,  Joseph  Pointer,  D.  Frank  Oakley,  John 
Mcjones,  R.  W.  Jones,  Sam  Glenn,  S.  T.  Covington,  James 
B.  Blackwell,  John  Oakley,  Alex  Bowen,  J.  J.  Raines,  Gid 
Davis,  Kemp  Walker,  G.  G.  Morton,  John  Ed  Owen,  John 
M.  Thaxton,  Jordan  T.  Thaxton,  Joseph  Bowling,  A.  D. 
Moore,  A.  J.  Holsomback,  Sidney  Moore,  James  E.  Barker, 
William  T.  Wilson,  William  T.  Ragan,  William  M.  Loftice, 
Samuel  H.  Gates,  C.  M.  G.  Wagstaff,  E.  B.  Barker,  Thomas 
Ragan,  John  H.  Strange,  J.  R.  Long,  J.  L  Long,  R.  D. 
Malone,  W.  R.  Stewart,  W.  S.  Barnwell,  George  W.  Hol- 
somback, Jesse  Long,  William  F.  Reade,  J.  B.  Wright,  John 
E.  Harris,  Richard  J.  Clayton,  M.  M.  Featherston,  S.  T. 
Pittard,  R.  B.  Beasley,  R.  H.  Hubbard,  John  R.  Perkins, 
Taylor  Jackson,  T.  J.  Terrell,  C.  C.  Woody,  Ruffin  Davis, 
J.  R.  Flunter,  John  W.  Ellison,  James  M.  Ellison,  Loftin 
Scott,  R.  H.  Oakley,  James  Barker,  A.  J.  Hamlett,  A.  P. 
Edwards,  S.  C.  Rice,  Moses  S.  Jones,  John  A.  Tucker,  and 
J.  T.  Yancey. 

In  this  list  there  are  a  few,  perhaps  a  dozen,  who  do 
not  live  in  this  county  now,  some  in  Caswell  and  Orange 
counties  and  some  in  Virginia,  and  about  as  many  who 
have  moved  in  from  other  counties.  The  majority  of 
these  old  soldiers  came  out  of  the  war  penniless,  or  worth 
very  little  in  the  way  of  this  world's  goods,  but  by  industry 
and  hard  work  they  have  made  good  and  are  of  our  best 
citizens.  Nearly  all  of  them  are  farmers  and  have  succeeded 
well.  May  they  live  long  to  enjoy  the  laurels  won  in  the 
days  that  "tried  men's  souls." 

Page  Sixty-eight 


I  think  Mr.  T.  W.  Blackard  is  the  oldest  man  in  the 
above  list  and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a  better  man  or  a 
finer  Christian  gentleman.  I  have  known  him  well  for 
about  half  a  century. 

ROXBORO,   N.   C. 

December  8,   1914. 


RECONSTRUCTION  AND  A  NEW  COURT 

HOUSE 

Mr.  Editor: 

As  a  result  of  the  Civil  War,  the  county,  and  the  whole 
South  as  well,  was  in  a  dilapidated,  rundown  condition. 
Poverty  and  distress  were  on  every  side.  Fortunately  the 
war  closed  in  April,  just  in  time  for  the  returning  sol- 
diers, who  were  farmers,  to  "pitch"  a  crop.  They  went  to 
work  with  a  will  and  determination  to  succeed  and  to  build 
up  again  the  waste  places,  and  they  succeeded  well,  consid- 
ering the  disadvantages  under  which  they  labored.  Prov- 
idence smiled  on  them  and  their  labors  produced  bountiful 
crops  as  a  result  of  their  industry. 

There  was  a  great  demand  for  carpenters ;  farm  houses 
and  all  other  buildings  had  become  dilapidated  and  much  in 
need  of  repairs  and  remodeling.  But  the  lack  of  ready 
money  to  pay  the  bills  was  the  great  problem  to  be  solved. 
The  short  tobacco  crops  for  the  last  two  years  of  the 
war  period  caused  money  to  be  very  scarce,  and  our  people 
resorted  in  part  to  a  barter  trade,  exchanging  everything 
they  could  spare  from  the  farm  with  the  merchants.  A 
trade  was  even  got  up  on  rabbits,  rabbit  skins,  partridges,  raw 
hides,  furs,  farm  produce  of  all  kinds,  lightwood,  sumac, 
and  other  things  too  tedious  to  mention. 

This  reminds  me  of  a  story  I  read  about  that  time,  of 
an  incident  in  the  mountain  section  of  Virginia.     A  drum- 

Page  Sixty-nine 


mer  pulled  up  at  a  country  store  on  the  mountain  side  and 
went  in  to  sell  the  merchant  some  goods.  Before  he  could 
show  his  samples  a  countryman  came  in  and  after  looking 
around  in  the  store,  saw  a  box  of  tobacco  and  bought  a 
plug  of  it  for  ten  cents.  He  took  out  of  his  pocket  a 
mink  skin  to  pay  the  bill,  the  merchant  giving  him  a  fox 
skin  as  change.  He  then  bought  twenty-five  cents  worth  of 
something  else  and  received  back  a  squirrel  skin  as  change. 
Next  he  bought  a  paper  of  pins  for  ten  cents,  giving  the 
merchant  back  the  squirrel  skin  and  receiving  a  rat  skin  as 
change.  His  next  purchase  was  a  paper  of  needles  for  five 
cents  and  in  payment  he  gave  the  merchant  back  the  rat 
skin,  which  closed  the  deal,  and  he  rode  away.  The  drum- 
mer was  astonished,  remarking  that  in  all  his  travels  he 
had  not  come  across  such  currency.  The  merchant  told 
him  that  once  in  about  every  six  months  the  fur  dealer 
came  around  with  his  wagon  and  paid  him  cash  for  the 
furs,  this  being  his  opportunity  to  secure  ready  money. 
However,  we  were  not  quite  so  bad  off  in  Person,  for 
there  was  some  gold  and  silver  in  our  country  which  had 
been  brought  out  from  old  stockings  and  other  hiding  places 
during  the  war,  and  we  also  had  a  little  tobacco  and  cotton, 
which  found  ready  sale  at  good  prices.  This  afforded 
great  relief  in  this  emergency. 

There  was  about  this  time — in  the  summer  of  1865 — a 
sale  here  of  a  large  lot  of  government  horses,  mules,  wagons, 
and  harness,  which  had  been  mostly  taken  home  by  Con- 
federate soldiers  and  which  had  been  forcibly  seized  by  the 
United  States  government  from  the  people,  brought  here, 
advertised  and  publicly  sold.  This  sale  amounted  to  between 
five  and  ten  thousand  dollars  cash.  The  farmers  were  in 
great  need  of  teams  and  wagons  and  paid  big  prices  for  this 
property  so  that  everybody  wondered  where  the  money 
came  from  to  pay  with.  This  seizure  by  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment was   felt  to    be  an    injustice     and    an    outrage. 

Page  Seventy 


The  poor  Confederate  soldier  was  deprived  of  all  that  he 
had  saved  and  brought  home  from  his  four  years'  service 
in  the  ranks.  In  some  instances  the  soldier  bought  back 
the  same  mule  or  horse  that  he  rode  home  from  the  army. 
By  the  fall  of  the  year  (1865)  the  merchants  of  the 
town,  George  Norwood  and  J.  A.  Long  (Norwood  & 
Long),  Chesley  Hamlen,  James  H.  and  John  D.  Paylor 
(Paylor  Brothers),  Green  D.  Satterfield  and  A.  1\.  Foushee 
(trading  as  Satterfield  and  Foushee),  and  a  few  others 
opened  up  full  stocks  of  goods  and  merchandise  in  Rox- 
boro,  as  did  some  few  country  merchants,  and  had  a  lucra- 
tive trade.  The  sight  of  a  full  store  of  goods  was  as  big 
a  show  as  a  circus.  People  came  from  far  and  near  to 
trade ;  even  a  side  of  red  sole  leather,  something  we  had 
not  had  for  years,  looked  good  and  sold  for  75  cents  a 
pound.  Goods  of  all  kinds  were  scarce  and  high,  even 
up  North  among  the  factories,  when  compared  with  the 
present  quantities  and  prices ;  yet  they  were  cheap  compared 
with  Confederate  prices,  to  which  we  had  been  accustomed 
during  the  war  period.  It  was  not  long  before  the  country 
was  fully  stocked  with  all  kinds  of  goods,  wares  and  mer- 
chandise; prices  declined  with  the  price  of  cotton  which  had 
sold  for  forty  cents  at  the  close  of  the  war,  but  soon  went 
down  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  cents.  Real  estate  felt  the  grav- 
itation to  lower  prices  perhaps  more  than  any  other  prop- 
erty. The  negro  being  set  free,  his  anxiety  to  enjoy  his 
new-found  freedom  made  his  labor  and  services,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  a  very  uncertain  commodity.  The  scar- 
city of  labor  meant  idle  land,  which  was  aggravated 
by  scarcity  of  money.  Few  people  wanted  to  buy  land. 
Those  who  owned  much  land  were  considered  "land 
poor,"  and  lands  which  sold  then  at  $1.50  to  $2.00  per  acre 
are  now  worth  from  $25.00  to  $100.00  per  acre.  Although 
land  was  so  cheap  Peruvian  Guano,  the  only  commercial 
fertilizer  then  used  in  this  section,  sold  in  1867  at  $100.00 

Page  Seventy-one 


to  $110.00  per  ton.  These  prices  will  look  strange  to  the 
young  farmers  of  today,  who  can  buy  their  tobacco  fertil- 
izers at  about  one-fifth  of  these  figures. 

After  a  few  years  of  progress  our  people  realized  the 
need  of  a  new  courthouse  at  the  county  seat,  the  old  one 
being  small  and  of  antiquated  style.  Our  magistrates  and 
county  commissioners  took  the  matter  under  advisement 
and  in  1883  built, a  new  courthouse  and  jail  of  more  mod- 
ern style — yet  not  stylish  enough  to  hurt — at  a  cost  of  about 
$10,000.00  and  in  the  steeple  they  installed  a  clock  at  a 
cost  of  $750.00. 

Citizens  who,  as  our  town  has  grown,  cast  their  lots  with 
us  during  the  years  after  1865  have  been:  Elder  J.  J. 
Lansdell,  Rev.  J.  H.  Lamberth,  W.  H.  Williams,  R.  H. 
Dowdy,  Dr.  C.  G.  Nichols,  William  H.  Long,  Willis  I.  John- 
son, R.  K.  Daniel,  Richard  T.  Howerton,  E.  D.  Cheek, 
James  T.  Sergeant,  Robert  A.  Noell,  John  A.  Noell,  Joseph 
W.  Noell,  J.  C.  Pass,  Woodson  Thomas,  Luther  Thomas, 
George  T.  Thaxton,  D.  W.  Bradsher,  D.  M.  Andrews, 
Walter  Woody,  R.  A.  Pass,  W.  T.  Pass,  T.  W.  Pass,  J.  H. 
Carver,  H.  H.  Masten,  W.  R.  Hambrick,  Flem  Hamlett, 
Albert  Clayton,  H.  G.  Clayton,  Dallas  Long,  R.  A.  Spencer, 
Samuel  C.  Barnett,  Luther  Thomas,  Geo.  W.  Thomas, 
Woodson  L.  Thomas,  Jno.  M.  O'Brient,  A.  S.  DeVlaming, 
R.  L  Featherstone,  Jno.  J.  Winstead,  H.  W.  Winstead,  T. 
W.  Henderson,  W.  L.  Lewis,  C.  H.  Hunter,  Victor  Kaplan, 
Mr.  Abbott  (of  Viccillo  Bro.  &  Abbott),  A.  M.  Burns,  J. 
W.  Chambers,  E.  B.  Yancey,  Jno.  H.  C.  Burch,  Henry 
Field,  Jno.  F.  Reams,  J.  W.  Algood,  T.  S.  Clay,  Dr.  E.  J. 
Tucker,  Dr.  R.  J.  Teague,  W.  H.  Pulley,  T.  H.  Street,  Dr. 
J.  A.  Wise,  H.  Fields,  J.  S.  Merritt,  Capt.  J.  A.  Tucker, 
D.  W.  Whitaker,  S.  P.  Williams,  C.  H.  Hunter,  W.  W. 
Kitchin,  Eugene  Bradsher,  M.  C.  Winstead,  J.  S.  Bradsher, 
F.  B.  Reade,  L.  D.  Veazey,  E.  C.  Veazey,  Benj.  Davis, 
R.  W.  Stephens,  A.  Lipshitz,  W.  L  Newton,  Jake  Jones, 

Page  Seventy-two 


\Vm.  Jones,  Jno.  Blanks,  Jas.  H.  Clayton,  N.  Lunsford, 
J.  D.  Morris,  W.  A.  Mills,  "w.  C.  Bullock,  W.  C.  Watkins, 
W.  J.  Pettigrew,  Jno.  Pettigrevv,  C.  C.  Cunningham,  J.  M. 
Pass,  J.  H.  Pass,  Ed  Davis,  T.  E.  Austin,  L.  G.  Stanfield, 
Hugh  \V.  Foushee,  Jake  Loy,  J.  H.  Perkins,  II.  J.  Whitt, 
Frank  Burch,  Chas.  A.  Whitfield,  T.  C.  Brooks,  A.  B. 
Stalvey.  W.  D.  Merritt,  L.  M.  Carlton,  Baxter  Allen, 
W.  A.  Winstead,  Dr.  B.  E.  Love,  R.  L.  Chappell,  Dr.  O.  P. 
Shaub.  Hubert  Morton,  L.  L.  Lunsford,  and  Dr.  Crisp. 

ROXBORO,   N.   C. 

February  3,  1915. 


TOBACCO  DEALERS  AFTER  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

Mr.   Editor  : 

In  a  former  letter  I  gave  a  list  of  the  tobacco  manufac- 
turers operating  in  this  cojinty  up  to  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War;  I  will  now  name  those  who  ha.:?  carried  on  this  busi- 
ness in  the  county  since  that  period,  and  I  begin  with  those 
operating  in  Roxboro. 

First  was  Geo.  W.  Norwood,  who  perhaps  did  the 
largest  business  of  all  who  have  ever  engaged  in  the  to- 
bacco business  in  this  county.  His  plant  was  burned 
about  the  year  1868  or  1870  and  having  no  insurance  he 
was  so  crippled  that  he  was  constrained  to  quit  the  busi- 
ness. His  loss  was  estimated  to  be  more  than  .$30,000.00. 
After  this  misfortune  Mr.  Norwood  and  his  family  moved 
to  Winston,  North  Carolina.  S.  B.  and  W.  H.  W^  instead, 
brothers,  made  plug  tobacco,  but  after  a  year  or  \\\o  of 
doubtful  success  they  sold  their  factory  and  fixtures  to  G.  D. 
Satterfield  and  Company,  who  carried  on  thi?  business  for 
a  year  or  two,  when  they  in  turn  closed  out  to  W.  C. 
Satterfield  and  Geo.  W.  Jones,  with  firm  name  of  Saner- 
field  and  Jones.     They  continued  the  business  for  only   a 

Page  Seventy-three 


few  years.  J.  A.  Long  manufactured  plug  tobacco  for  a 
few  years,  but  Roxboro  was  then  so  far  from  a  railroad 
that  he  decided  to  discontinue  the  business.  W.  H.  Win- 
stead  and  Chesley  Hamlen  made  plug  tobacco  for  a  year 
or  two.  Mr.  Hamlen  moved  to  Winston  and  engaged  in 
the  same  business  there.  Several  parties  have  made  smok- 
ing tobacco  on  a  small  scale,  and  among  the  number  were 
James  Wright,  Moses  Chambers,  S.  P.  Satterfield  and  W. 
H.  Winstead.  Mr.  Winstead  had  a  brand  called  the  "Rox- 
boro Ram"  on  which  he  had  quite  a  run.  If  he  had  pushed 
it  it  might  have  rivaled  the  celebrated  "Bull  Durham" 
brand.  S.  B.  Winstead  and  John  S.  Long  (Winstead  and 
Long),  also  made  plug  tobacco  a  year  or  two  and  gave 
it  up  because  Roxboro  was  so  far  from  a  railroad.  Natur- 
ally and  by  circumstances  our  town  was  quite  a  tobacco 
center,  even  before  we  had  any  leaf  tobacco  market  here. 
Our  factory  men  then  bought  their  stock  of  leaf  tobacco 
at  the  barn  door  or  on  the  South  Boston  market  and 
hauled  it  to  RoxboTO.  When  they  had  manufactured  it 
they  hauled  it  back  to  South  Boston  and  other  points  for 
shipment. 

There  were  at  this  time  a  few  factories  out  of  town. 
H.  A.  Reams,  at  "High  Hill;"  did  a  large  business,  also 
Chas.  G.  Mitchell,  near  Woodsdale,  Brooks  and  Walker, 
at  Daysville,  and  J.  L  Cothran,  near  Mt.  Tirzah.  They 
all  soon  discontinued,  badly  handicapped  by  lack  of  rail- 
road, warehouse  and  market  facilities.  Our  neighbor- 
ing town,  Leasburg,  also  had  several  tobacco  factories  at 
this  time,  and  did  quite  a  large  business,  but,  like  Roxboro, 
it  was  too  far  from  transportation  lines  to  make  a  success. 
Wilkf-rson  and  Fuller  and  R.  P.  Hancock  were  the  largest 
operators  at  Leasburg. 

^Roxboro,  N.  C. 
Sept.  13,  1916. 


Page  Seventy- four 


THE  RAILROAD  AND  PROGRESS 

Editor  Courier: 

A  former  letter  brought  us  to  about  the  year  1885  when 
the  talk  of  a  railroad  to  Roxboro  was  in  the  air.  Most  of 
our  people  had  their  doubts  that  it  would  ever  be  a  reality; 
but  my  life-long  neighbor,  and  a  most  enterprising  citizen. 
J.  A.  Long,  devoted  himself  to  the  task  with  all  his 
characteristic  energy  and  push,  worked  for  this  enter- 
prise day  and  night,  wrote  letters,  traveled,  talked 
much  at  home  and  abroad  in  an  effort  to  get  others 
interested  in  a  railroad  for  Roxboro.  After  a  hard 
fight,  his  etTorts  were  crowned  with  success,  and  the 
road  was  completed  to  our  town  in  May,  1890.  Had 
it  not  been  for  INIr.  Long,  I  doubt  that  we  would  have 
had  a  railroad  so  soon.  By  the  time  the  road  reached  us 
he  was  having  a  warehouse  built  for  the  sale  of  leaf  to- 
bacco, and  the  market  opened  up  at  once.  Later  other 
warehouses  were  built,  and  we  now  have  five  excellent 
warehouses.  This  market  sold  in  1913  about  seven  million 
pounds  at  an  average  of  $20.00,  the  total  sales  amounting 
to  over  a  million  and  a  quarter  dollars.  Between  1885  and 
1890  two  banks  were  organized  in  Roxboro,  the  first  one 
with  a  capital  stock  of  $40,000,  the  other  one  $25,000,  with 
J.  A.  Long  president  of  the  first,  and  E.  B.  Reade  president 
of  the  other.  Both  institutions  have  prospered  well,  have 
withstood  the  financial  panics  which  have  come,  and  have 
met  promptly  all  demands  on  them  for  ready  money.  In 
1907  they  did  not  issue  "script"  as  many  other  banks  did 
when  money  was  tight,  in  order  to  run  the  tobacco  markets. 
By  aid  of  these  banks  our  market  paid  cash  for  every  pile 
of  tobacco  sold,  and  paid  as  good  prices  for  it  as  other 
markets.  The  president  of  one  of  our  banks  said  that  he 
had  a  machine  making  the  money  each  night  for  the  next 


Page  Seventy-five 


day's  tobacco  sale.    Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  the  ware- 
house checks  were  always  paid  when  presented. 

During  this  period  the  town  took  on  a  pronounced  air 
of  growth.  Carpenters,  brick  layers  and  painters  were 
busy  providing  houses  to  shelter  the  new  citizens ;  the  saw, 
hammer  and  trowel  made  music  on  every  side  in  a  way 
unknown  beforje.  Quite  a  lot  of  property  changed  hands; 
a  number  of  brick  stores  and  shops  were  constructed  to  take 
the  place  of  the  old  wooden  houses ;  three  or  four  new 
churches  were  built  for  the  white  people  and  colored  breth- 
ren also  caught  the  spirit  of  progress  and  built  three  or  four 
places  of  worship.  Up  to  1900,  our  population  had  in- 
creased considerably,  and  all  found  employment  and  thus 
helped  to  build  up  the  town  and  county. 

Our  local  lawyers  at  this  period  were  W.  W.  Kitchin, 
Col.  C.  S.  Winstead,  Jas.  F.  Terry,  J.  S.  Merritt  and  Wm. 
T.  Bradsher. 

I  failed  to  state  that  the  first  newspaper  ever  printed 
here  was  established  by  D.  W.  Whitaker  and  J.  B.  Hunter 
about  the  year  1884.  It  did  not  succeed  well  financially 
and  was  afterwards  purchased  by  Messrs.  J.  A.  and  J.  W. 
Noell,  who  took  in  hand  this  paper,  now  The  Roxhoro 
Courier,  and  have  managed  it  with  success  ever  since. 

Since  writing  my  former  letter,  I  take  notice  in  the 
Courier  of  a  communication  entitled  "More  Reminiscences" 
from  my  friend  Charles  F.  Clayton,  of  Tarboro,  a  native 
of  Person  county.  It  is  so  well  written,  informing  and 
entertaining,  especially  to  us  older  people,  that  I  am  grate- 
ful to  him.  I  thank  him  very  much  for  his  kind  references 
to  me. 

ROXBORO,    N.   C. 

December   12,   1914. 


Page  Seventy-six 


1900  TO   1914 

Editor  Courier  : 

I   will   now   speak   of   the   progress   made   in  our  town 

since  1900. 

The   first   event   of    importance   was  the   buildinc:   of   a 
cotton  mill  near  the  railroad  station  in  1901  or  1902,  pro- 
jected and  built  under  the  direction   of    Mr.   J.   A.    Long, 
president  of  the  company  and  large  stockholder.     This  mill 
was  run  with  so  much  success  and  profit  that  the  stock- 
holders and  directors  decided  to  enlarge  the  plant.     In  1907 
•they   increased   the   capital   stock   and  built  and   equipped 
another  mill  of  much  larger  proportions,  two  miles  north 
of   Roxboro  on  the  railroad  at  the  point   formerly  known 
as  Reade  and  Hamlin's   (later  Pass')  mill,  on  the  Norfolk 
and  Western  Railroad.     Both  mills  make  only  cotton  yarns 
but  consume  twenty-five  to  thirty  bales  of  cotton  daily,  run- 
ning some  25,000  to  30,000  spindles.    The  two  mills  cost 
upward  of  half  a  million  dollars.       An  addition  to  the  new 
mill  is  now  being  built,  at  an  outlay  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  more.     These  mills  will  be  propelled  by 
electric  power  supplied  by  the  Southern  Power  Co.'s  plant 
located  near  Wadesboro,  N.  C.     Other  machinery  here,  too, 
will  be  run  and  the  town  lighted  by  this  company. 

Quite  a  village  has  sprung  up  around  the  new  mill,  with 
a  church,  school  and  stores.  The  price  of  land  near  the 
mill  has  advanced  from  $10.00  to  $50.00  or  more  per  acre. 
Besides,  the  mill  has  brought  much  trade  and  business  to 
Roxboro  and  vicinity  and  the  advent  of  the  Southern 
Power  Co.'s  electric  line  to  our  town  opens  up  the  way  for 
other  new  industries.  We  have  a  fine  back  country,  good 
farm  lands  which  produce  the  best  of  tobacco,  wheat,  corn, 
oats,  fruits  and  vegetables.  Best  of  all,  we  have  a  splendid 
citizenship  of  honest,  industrious  people. 

We  have  good  railroad,  express  and  telegraph  facilities, 
and  also   telephone   lines   to   nearly   every   section   of    the 

Page  Seventy-seven 


county  as  well  as  to  the  outside  world.  Our  town  has 
stores  well  stocked  with  goods,  wares  and  merchandise, 
hardware,  and  agricultural  implements,  and  everything 
needed  to  cultivate  the  farm.  Also  we  have  an  excellent 
graded  school  of  300  to  400  pupils,  and  churches  and  Sun- 
day schools  representing  the  leading  denominations  of  the 
country,  Methodist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian  and  Primitive 
Baptist.  Our  school  facilities  are  good  throughout  the 
county.  An  educational  spirit  has  been  awakened  among 
our  people  to  an  extent  unknown  before,  and  this  is  as  it 
should  be. 

The  legal  profession  is  now  represented  by  Messrs.  L. 
M.  Carlton,  W.  D.  Merritt,  F.  O.  Carver,  M.  C.  Winstead, 
C.  G.  Winstead,  N.  Lunsford  and  T.  C.  Brooks.  The 
doctors  of  medicine  are  W.  A.  Bradsher,  B.  E.  Love,  C.  G. 
Nichols,  W.  T.  Long  and  C.  G.  Montague,  and  the  dentists 
are  E.  J.  Tucker,  B.  R.  Long.  B.  R.  Vickers,  and  A.  P. 
Reade. 

We  also  have  Masonic  and  Odd  Fellows'  organizations 
and  the  ladies  have  clubs  and  societies  galore. 

ROXBORO,   N.   C. 

December  23,  1914. 


PERSON  COUNTY  AND  "BULL  DURHAM" 

Mr.  Editor: 

The  history  of  our  county,  so  richly  endowed  with  good 
tobacco  lands  has  been  closely  connected  with  the  history 
of  commerce  in  tobacco  and  so,  naturally,  several  of  my 
letters  have  dealt  with  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  tobacco. 
With  your  permission,  therefore,  I  will  give  my  recollec- 
tions of  the  origin  of  the  celebrated  "Bull  Durham"  brand 
of  smoking  tobacco. 

The  "Buir  brand  originated  in  the  genius  of  a 
Person  county  man,  J.  Ruffin  Green,  of  Woodsdale,  this 

Page  S.  vcnty-eight 


county.     Some  time  about  1856  or  1857  his  father,  Mager 
Green,    a    farmer    hving    near    Woodsdale,    sold    his    farm 
to    elder    A.    X.    Mall,    a    Primitive    Baptist    minister,    a 
neii^hbor  and  his  pastor.     Mr.  Green  expected  to  find  soon 
another  farm  more  to  his  liking,  but  after  looking  over  the 
country  for  some  time  failed  to  do  so,  and  being  anxious 
to  have  his  land  back,  called  on  Ur.  Hall   for  this  pur- 
pose.    But  as  Mr.  Hall  desired  the  land  himself  he  would 
not  let  Mr.  Green  have  it  back.     Deeply  disappointed  he 
and  his  son  Ruffin,  therefore,  set  out  to  find  homes  elsewhere 
and  after  looking  around  for  some  time  in  this  and  other 
counties,  they  each  bought  farms  about  five  miles  from  the 
then  little  station  of  "Durham's"  of  about  100  inhabitants, 
on    the    old    North    Carolina    railroad    in    Orange    county 
and  moved  there  with  their  families  and  engaged  in  farm- 
ing.    Pretty  soon  Mr.  Ruffin  Green  deciding  to  add  a  side 
line  to  his  farming  activities,  bought  up  a  lot  of  leaf  to- 
bacco and  beat  it  up  by  hand  into  a  granulated  shape  into 
smoking  tobacco,  and  hauled  it  off  in  wagons  to  the  eastern 
part  of  the  State.     He  found  a  ready  sale  for  it  at  good 
profit  and  soon  made  money  with  which  to  build  a  new 
frame  residence  and  perhaps  a  small   factory  to  run  the 
business  in.     Just  as  the  residence  was  about  completed  it 
was  destroyed  by  fire  and  he  had  no  insurance.    Of  course, 
he  felt  that  he  was  financially  ruined  and  did  not  know 

what  next  to  do. 

After  considering  the  situation  for  a  while,  he  decided 
that,  as  the  cost  of  hauling  to  the  "depot"  was  considerable, 
it  would  be  wise  to  buy  land  and  move  his  family  and 
business  there,  for  land  was  cheap  then.  So  he  bought  a 
tract  of  land  in  what  is  now  the  middle  of  the  city,  and 
built  a  factory  and  comfortable  residence  near  the  railroad 
station,  and  continued  there  the  manufacture  of  smoking 
tobacco  on  a  larger  scale.  He  gave  it  the  name  of  "The 
Bull  Durham"  smoking  tobacco,  and  had  the  brand  patented 


Page  Scvcniy-nine 


or  trade-marked  for  his  protection.  He  increased  the 
output  and  soon  had  a  larger  demand  for  his  goods.  The 
business  ran  on  up  to  and  during  the  Civil  War.  At  its 
close  the  armies  of  Johnson  and  of  Sherman  were  both  dis- 
banded near  Durham,  and  the  soldiers  of  both  armies, 
North  and  South,  it  was  said,  made  depredations  on  the 
little  factory,  and  carried  off  a  large  portion  of  the  tobacco 
stored  there. 

Mr.  Green  felt  that  he  was  again  ruined,  but  it  proved 
to  the  contrary,  as  it  turned  out  to  be  the  best  and  cheap- 
est advertisement  he  ever  had,  making  the  "Bull  Brand" 
famous  all  over  the  country,  North  and  South,  bringing 
orders  for  it  from  every  quarter  and  building  up  a  big 
trade.  Not  long  after  the  close  of  the  war  Mr.  Green  died 
and  his  father,  Mager  Green,  his  administrator,  advertised 
in  a  Raleigh  paper  for  about  six  months  the  sale  of  the 
factory  and  fixtures  with  the  "Bull  standing  by."  At  last 
he  found  purchasers  for  the  plant,  and  sold  it  to  W.  T. 
Blackwell  (widely  known  as  "Buck"  Black  well)  and  James 
R.  Day,  Person  county  boys,  for  a  sum  which  would  seem 
small  at  the  present  day  for  the  beginning  of  such  an  im- 
mense business. 

These  young  men  had  already  been  engaged  in  a  small 
way  in  making  smoking  tobacco  in  Person  county,  but  dis- 
continued their  Person  business  at  once  after  buying  the 
"Bull  Brand"  plant.  Money  was  exceedingly  scarce  and 
hard  to  procure.  It  required  grit  to  undertake  to  carry 
on  this  newly-bought  enterprise.  But  they  had  had  some 
experience  in  the  tobacco  business,  and  they  paid  what 
they  could  on  it  and  borrowed  money  with  which  to  push 
the  business,  which  met  with  great  success.  After  a  few 
years  Gen.  J.  S.  Carr,  then  a  young  man,  bought  an  inter- 
est in  the  business  and  with  the  addition  of  his  talents  and 
energy  carried  it  on  to  greater  success. 


Page  Eighty 


The  location  of  this  plant  made  it  necessary  to  have  a 
leaf  tobacco  market  in  Durham,  so  Messrs.  Henry  A. 
Reams  and  Ak-x  Walker,  of  Person  county,  moved  to 
Durham  and  opened  up  and  conducted  the  first  leaf  tobacco 
warehouse  in  that  town.  This  enterprise  was  needed  to 
furnish  tobacco  for  this  plant,  and  made  a  permanent  mar- 
ket for  a  large  section  of  the  fuicst  tobacco  territory  in 
the  State.  These  enterprises,  with  many  others,  caused 
people  to  flock  to  Durham,  where  they  engaged  in  many 
varied  industries  and  the  city  has  grown  rapidly  to  be 
one  of  the  largest  in  our  State,  and  is  perhaps  the  best 
known  city  of  its  size  in  the  United  States,  or  in  the  world. 

After  some  years  Mr.  Day  sold  his  interest  in  the 
"Bull"  factory  to  Messrs.  Blackwell  and  Carr,  his  partners, 
who  continued  the  business,  enlarging  the  plant  and  increas- 
ing the  output.  After  a  few  more  years  W.  T.  Blackwell 
sold  his  interest  for  a  princely  sum  to  Mr.  McDowell,  of 
Philadelphia,  and  the  business  continued  to  run  under  the 
management  of  Carr  and  McDowell  until  it  was  sold  to 
or  merged   into  the  American  Tobacco   Company. 

The  history  of  the  origin  and  rise  of  this  world- 
renowned  smoking  tobacco  is  thus  interwoven  with  the 
lives  of  some  of  our  strong  and  resourceful  Person  county 
men. 

ROXBORO,   N.   C. 

Februarv  15,  1917. 


Page  Eighty-om 


